Among the questions to consider as the Matt Gaetz ethics report reaches the public:

Did Trump not know or not care about the controversy when he chose him to serve as attorney general?

The Floridian tried and failed to get a restraining order to halt the release of the committee’s report, and soon after, the awaited document reached the public. My MSNBC colleagues Hayley Miller and Clarissa-Jan Lim reported:

The House Ethics Committee found that then-Rep. Matt Gaetz bought illegal drugs, paid multiple women for sex and had sex with a 17-year-old while he was serving in Congress, according to a final draft of the committee’s report released Monday.

The committee found “substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz violated House rules, state and federal laws, and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, acceptance of impermissible gifts, the provision of special favors and privileges, and obstruction of Congress,” the report says.

MSNBC has published the entirety of the 42-page document online, and it paints a rather brutal picture of a Republican who “regularly” paid women for sex during his tenure on Capitol Hill. The same report accuses Gaetz of using or possessing illegal drugs, including cocaine; accepting improper gifts; and helping a woman he was having sex with obtain an expedited passport......

So, what happens now? A few questions hang overhead.

1. Did Donald Trump not know about this or not care? In case anyone has forgotten, it was just last month when the president-elect announced his intention to nominate Gaetz to lead the Justice Department as the nation’s next attorney general. The result was a fiasco — Gaetz withdrew from consideration after just eight days — and evidence of a shambolic transition process.

But in light of the new allegations, Trump’s decision is even tougher to defend: He chose Gaetz to serve as the nation’s chief law enforcement official, despite the House Ethics Committee’s investigation. Did the president-elect not know about the probe and the possibility of brutal findings, or did he simply not care?.....

4. Why did House Speaker Mike Johnson try to keep the ethics committee’s report from the public? While the ethics panel has traditionally operated independently, House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters in mid-November that he would “strongly request” that the committee keep its findings under wraps. The Louisiana Republican added that he was concerned about setting “a terrible precedent” by releasing a report on a former member of Congress.

In reality, however, Congress has already released ethics reports about former members — in both the House and the Senate — prompting questions as to why the incumbent House speaker was so adamant about shielding Gaetz.

Taken together, there’s no reason to believe the release of the House Ethics Committee’s findings will necessarily end the larger controversy.