During a conference call with Department of Justice prosecutors on Friday, a top FBI official poured cold water on a conspiracy theory promoted by some conservatives in the wake of the pro-Trump riot on Capitol Hill.

Asked if members of Antifa - the loose coalition of anti-fascist activists - had posed as Trump supporters in an effort to "frame" those present during Wednesday's unrest, FBI Assistant Director Steven D'Antuono said simply: "We have no indication of that, at this time."

It comes after several conservatives, including Republican members of Congress, baselessly claimed that those leading the charge into the Capitol were actually antifa infiltrators.

Image source, CBS/ Family handout

A family member of a woman who died from a medical emergency while protesting in Washington has issued a statement blaming Trump for her death.

“Rosanne was really passionate about her beliefs like a lot of people,” said Rosanne Boyland's brother-in-law, Justin Cave.

“I’ve never tried to be a political person but it’s my own personal belief that the president’s words incited a riot that killed four of his biggest fans last night.

"And I believe that we should invoke the 25th amendment at this time.”

A West Virginia state lawmaker who was elected in November and filmed himself storming the Capitol will face federal charges, prosecutors said on Friday.

In his video, Republican Derrick Evans was seen wearing a helmet and yelling: "We're taking this country back whether you like it or not. Today's a test run. We're taking this country back."

Back in West Virginia, the lawmaker is facing calls to resign, as well as demands that his access to the statehouse be restricted.

Other people facing charges include Richard Barnett, who was photographed sitting at the desk of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and an Alabama man who had Molotov cocktails and guns in his truck which was parked near Congress.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy called on Democrats to step away from considering impeaching President Trump for a second time.

In a lengthy statement on Friday, he said: "Our country is not just divided. We are deeply hurt... Impeaching the president with only 12 days left in his term will only divide our country more."

Democratic leaders in the House majority indicated they may move forward with impeachment as soon as Monday.

McCarthy said he had reached out to Joe Biden - who he did not acknowledge as the president-elect until this week - to discuss how to "work together to lower the temperature and unite the country to solve America's challenges".

He is a fierce defender of President Trump - who reportedly refers to him as "my Kevin". On Wednesday, he joined 138 of his Republican colleagues in the House - as well as eight in the Senate - in objecting to Congress certifying Joe Biden's election victory, based on unsubstantiated claims of election fraud.

Other Republicans are echoing McCarthy's concerns that impeachment will inflame supporters of the president.

Earlier today, Lindsey Graham - a senior Republican in the Senate - said "it will do more harm than good" and implored Joe Biden "to step in and allow the nation to heal".

President Trump is set to become the first president in 152 years to not attend his successor's inauguration.

We asked members of our BBC voter panel to weigh in.

Here's what they said:

Rick Scott, a Republican from Florida, is "urging the president to reconsider his decision to skip the inauguration" of Joe Biden as the next US president.

Scott was one of eight senators that voted to object to the certification of the election results by Congress earlier this week.

He is also the head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the main body that supports and raises fund for Republicans in Senate races.

In his statement on Friday, Scott said "losing an election is very hard" but attending the ceremony "demonstrates the peaceful transfer of power to our people and to the world".

Image source, Getty Images

A laptop was stolen from the Capitol Hill office of Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday, one of her aides told Reuters today.

The laptop was kept in a conference room and used for presentations, the aide added.

South Carolina Democrat Jim Clyburn told reporters after the breach that he had an iPad stolen, but an aide later told reporters that the device is actually "safe and sound".

"In the chaos on Wednesday, a staffer moved it to a more secure location and other staff was not aware," said Clyburn's spokesman.

Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley also said he had a laptop computer stolen from a desk in his office.

"This is probably going to take several days to flesh out exactly what happened, what was stolen, what wasn't," Michael Sherwin, acting US attorney for the District of Columbia, told reporters on Thursday.

"Items, electronic items, were stolen from senators' offices. Documents, materials, were stolen, and we have to identify what was done, mitigate that, and it could have potential national security equities. If there was damage, we don't know the extent of that yet."

Alistair Coleman
BBC Monitoring

Image source, Twitter/@RealDonaldTrump

There’s confusion among hardcore Donald Trump loyalists on social media following the president’s Twitter video in which he committed to an orderly transition of power.

Some claimed that the clip was faked or made under duress, while others said that the outgoing president had let them down.

Pro-Trump social media users suggested that the video posted on Thursday night was created using “deepfake” technology, claiming his head “doesn’t seem to move or match properly with his body,” according to one user on Parler.

Deepfakes are videos in which a person’s face is digitally altered, often to put words into the mouths of celebrities, royalty or politicians.

Some thought that Trump was forced into making the video, saying that he is being “held hostage”.

There’s no evidence for any of this.

Other users on pro-Trump forums are dismayed at his remarks, saying that he has “sold them out” after weeks of promising to overturn the election result.

But some hardcore loyalists remain convinced that the president is in charge of events and that’s he’s still “playing 5D chess” - a term used by QAnon conspiracy believers who think Trump has a complex plan that will confirm him in power and expose his enemies.

Read more: What is QAnon and where did it come from?

Image source, Police handout

The Washington DC metropolitan police, Capitol police and Department of Justice are all now investigating the death of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick who died after being injured amid Wednesday's chaos.Any charges will reportedly be federal, as Sicknick was injured on government property, according to US media.

A spokesman for the DC police told BBC News that the city's homicide unit is investigating, as they do all deaths that occur in the city, and it is too early to say whether homicide charges will be filed.Sicknick joined the Capitol police force in 2008 after leaving the military and was serving in the first responders unit.

Speaking to the Daily Beast, his brother Craig said he had joined the force two days before President Barack Obama took office.

He “always tried to do what was right,” his brother said, adding: "He worked a lot of overtime, and he was on during this mess."

Image source, Getty Images

Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi says that she spoke today with the senior-most Pentagon general about Trump's access to nuclear weapons.

"This morning, I spoke to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley to discuss available precautions for preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike," she said in a statement.

"The situation of this unhinged President could not be more dangerous, and we must do everything that we can to protect the American people from his unbalanced assault on our country and our democracy."

Unfortunately, Pelosi did not share any details of what Milley told her in response.

Her statement comes amid efforts to eject Trump, either through impeachment or the US constitution's 25th amendment.

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America reporter

Trump’s announcement that he will not attend Joe Biden’s inauguration, breaking with a long American tradition, should not come as a huge surprise.

He only recently, and reluctantly, acknowledged his presidential defeat, after months of unsubstantiated allegations that a landslide electoral victory had been stolen from him.

The terse message, posted on Twitter, will undercut the president’s call for “healing and reconciliation” made in the White House video he released last night.

It suggests Trump, far from being at peace with his defeat, still harbours the kind of anger and resentment he has displayed in recent days.

He will not graciously welcome the Bidens to Washington as part of a his promised “smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power”. He may not even be anywhere near Washington when they arrive.

Instead, scripted Trump and Twitter Trump reveal two very different attitudes.

Police in Washington DC say that they have received more than 17,000 tips from the public since putting out an appeal for information on the people who stormed the halls of Congress on Wednesday.

"Since we put out images of persons of interest related to Federal Charges Pending due to Insurrection at the US Capitol, we have received approximately 17,000 tips from the public!" the DC police tweeted on Friday.

It comes after authorities in DC and at the FBI created a website, external for members of the public to view pictures of the rioters.

The FBI is also offering a $50,000 (£37,000) reward for information leading to the arrest of a person who planted pipe bombs at the headquarters of the Democratic and Republican parties.

Image source, Getty Images

Since Wednesday's tumultuous events in DC, several top White House staff members and cabinet officials have announced their resignations.

• Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, who is married to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, announced her departure yesterday with only 13 days to go before Trump's term ends on 20 January
• Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, one of the wealthiest members of Trump's team, also announced her departure yesterday
• Former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, who for years marshalled every government resource he could to enact Trump's America First agenda, said he would quit his post as special envoy to Northern Ireland

• Stephanie Grisham, the spokeswoman for First Lady Melania Trump, also said she was leaving
• The growing list of last-minute White House quitters also includes social secretary Rickie Niceta, deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews and acting chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers Tyler Goodspeed

As criticism of Wednesday's violence at the US Capitol mounts, Americans around the country say they are "disgusted" and "irritated" by what happened.

Members of our BBC voter panel had this to say:

Here's what other Americans told us.

President Trump will become only the fourth president in US history to snub his successor's inauguration.

The last time it happened was in 1869, when outgoing president Andrew Johnson refused to travel to the ceremony in the same carriage as President-elect Ulysses Grant.

Other presidents have missed the swearing-in of their replacements in the past - Woodrow Wilson fell ill, John F Kennedy was killed and Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace - but only Johnson, John Quincy Adams in 1829 and John Adams in 1801 have boycotted the ceremony as an act of protest.

Media outlets previously reported that Trump was planning to be at his golf course in Scotland, but Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she would not allow him to enter the country.

Here's more about what the Biden inauguration on 20 January will look like.

Image source, Reuters

Dominion, the manufacturers of a voting system used in the US election, is suing President Donald Trump’s former campaign lawyer Sidney Powell for defamation.

Powell made numerous claims about the voting system including that it was “created in Venezuela to rig elections for Hugo Chavez”, the lawsuit says.

The conservative activist and former federal prosecutor also made unsubstantiated claims that votes for President Trump had probably been switched in favour of President-elect Joe Biden.

No evidence has been provided for any of the allegations and courts have dismissed lawsuits which referred to those claims.

Dominion is requesting more than $1.3bn (£960m) in damages. It claims it spent millions on damage control and security for its employees, external, NBC news reports.

Image source, Getty Images

President Trump is facing more bad news at the end of his presidency. The latest figures from the US Department of Labor show the economy lost 140,000 jobs in December, ending seven months of employment growth.

The final jobs report of the Trump presidency shows the recovery in the US employment market collapsing in December, crushed by a resurgent pandemic, new lockdowns and winter weather.

The unemployment rate held steady at 6.7%. The pandemic has been catastrophic for the economy, leaving many Americans out of work, homeless and facing food shortages.

The weak jobs report is likely to provide further momentum for the Democrats to pass more stimulus measures, says our business correspondent Michelle Fleury. President-elect Joe Biden has already called last month’s $900bn (£660bn) aid package "a down payment".

President Donald Trump has confirmed that he will not be attending the inauguration of Joe Biden on 20 January.

White House spokesman Judd Deere says President Trump and his administration "extend our prayers" to the family of US Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who died from injuries sustained in Wednesday's riot.

It is the first comment from the president on the officer's death.

It comes shortly after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ordered flags at the US Capitol to be flown at half mast in honour of the officer.

Image source, EPA

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has ordered flags at the US Capitol building to be flown at half mast in honour of police officer Brian Sicknick.

Sicknick, a US Capitol officer, died from injuries sustained in Wednesday’s riot.

He collapsed shortly after returning to his division office and died on Thursday evening in hospital.

Pelosi’s Deputy Chief of Staff, Drew Hamill, confirmed the move on Twitter.