U.S. politics engulfed in threats following police search at Trump's home

A Republican former U.S. attorney general is pleading with his fellow Americans: cool down the ill-informed speculation threatening to engulf the country's politics.

The police search at Donald Trump's Florida residence has prompted a surge in inflammatory rhetoric reminiscent of the volatile weeks after the last election.

It's included violent threats against officials, vows of political retaliation against the FBI, comparisons to Nazi rule and social-media musings about civil war.

Alberto Gonzales is urging people to withhold judgment until we learn more about what actually prompted Tuesday's hours-long search for classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.

The attorney general under George W. Bush told CBC News he feels sympathy for his former department: the Justice Department avoids, as a general rule, discussing investigations, in part to protect the reputation of its target.

Since there is no guarantee charges will be laid following a search, Gonzales said, it's unfair to a suspect to rush out and describe what you were investigating.

This, he concedes, puts his former department at a disadvantage by creating an information vacuum that in this case is being quickly filled with speculation.

"There's a lot here we don't know yet.… People need to wait. People need to be patient. I have a great deal of confidence and faith in the department. I'm not saying it doesn't make mistakes from time to time. It does, it may. Nonetheless, I would give the benefit of the doubt to the department. Let the department move forward and do its job."

Such calls for patience are falling flat. 

The nation is awash in furious speculation from every strata of American society, from anonymous accounts to high-ranking members of Congress.

Why did FBI agents scour the former president's home for classified documents? How sensitive were they? Did Trump show them to anyone? Did any non-Americans see them? Is it connected to a broader investigation? Is it a smear job to stop Trump from running for president again?

Is this all about mishandled documents? Authorities aren't talking and Trump has refused to release the search warrant, which could offer clues.

Republican politicians have largely closed ranks around the former president and threatened everything from defunding the FBI to grilling law enforcement at committee hearings.

They compared the raid to a foreign dictatorship tactic. They raised money off it, soliciting donations to fight alleged persecution.