This story is by David Lombardo and myself:

A mid-level New York appellate court issued an order Thursday authorizing the state’s top elections enforcement officer to move forward with a probe into campaign spending by Senate Republicans, who have sought to block subpoenas issued last year in the case.

The ruling largely validates state Board of Elections independent counsel Risa Sugarman’s ability to investigate her claim that the Senate Republicans improperly used campaign funds to boost their candidates in advance of the 2016 elections. The appellate panel sided with Senate Republicans on their request to block some of the subpoenas that the court ruled were “extraneous” to the central purpose of the inquiry.

The decision is available below.

In March 2017, Sugarman issued subpoenas for 38 distinct types of records, which mostly focused on spending from the state Senate GOP’s campaign committee and housekeeping accounts, and their relationships with a number of campaign vendors. The housekeeping account, under law, is supposed to be used only for party-building purposes and not to help individual candidates.