I was curious about your post. I found a couple of pages showing what the notary completes for phone testimony in a federal court. (I can't seem to find the pages today.) The notary puts the witness under oath, using the traditional truth, whole truth, nothing but the truth language. Then the notary fills out a statement saying that the notary put the witness under oath, and examined the witness's ID card, and lists the details of the ID card. Then the notary signs it as an unsworn declaration under penalty of perjury.
This gets around the two problems: in some states ID checking isn't required for oaths, and if the notary wrote and tried to swear to a written statement that the notary checked the ID, the notary wouldn't be able to administer the oath to himself. I believe some state courts have a similar law letting people in quite a few situations file court papers under penalty of perjury without being sworn before an official.
The federal unsworn declarations under penalty of perjury law can be found at:
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/28/1746 |