After outlining the alleged Oath Keepers conspiracy, prosecutor Jeffrey Nestler told jurors a brief legislative history that, until the 2020 election, was obscure.
It’s “a strange quirk” of our system, he said, that the winner of the presidential election is not officially the winner when the ballots are counted in November. “Under the Constitution, it’s not official until Congress says so, and Congress has to say so on January 6.” Furthermore, “the Vice President of the United States shall be the person to preside over the session.”