State prosecutors sparred with lawyers for the House Republican caucus yesterday in a closed-door hearing at which they asked a state judge to force GOP leaders to comply with wide-ranging subpoenas in the ongoing payroll bonus investigation.

Commonwealth Court Judge Barry Feudale, who is overseeing a state grand jury investigating the matter, heard arguments in Harrisburg.

The hard-line positions by GOP lawyers over requests and subpoenas for documents and testimony have all but stalled the investigation, according to one highly placed source.

Yesterday's hearing was held in secret because it is part of a grand jury investigation.

A trio of sources close to the investigation said prosecutors and attorneys for the caucus have fallen out over broad subpoenas that seek thousands of records, including e-mails, as part of an ongoing probe into whether Republican House staff members were used to work political campaigns, either on state time or in return for taxpayer-funded bonuses.

In July, a dozen current and former House Democratic officials and staff members were charged after a grand jury accused them of engaging in a widespread conspiracy to trade year-end pay bonuses for campaign work. Additionally, some were accused of using state equipment and working during state hours for the election campaigns of various Democratic nominees.

The presentment followed the publication of dozens of e-mails among staffers in which they openly discussed the use of taxpayer-funded pay bonuses to reward people who worked on campaigns in 2004 and 2005.

The subpoena for documents from the Republicans so far has failed to produce the sort of chain of communication that prosecutors believe will establish their case.

"They seem to want everything, which is why this investigation goes on forever," said one source connected with the case.

Prosecutors also have been stymied by the fact that, unlike the House Democrats, the Republican caucuses did not hand out bonuses widely, restricting them to a handful of top staff.

One caucus employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of grand jury secrecy rules, said prosecutors appear to believe "that if the Democrats did it, obviously we did it, too."

So far, prosecutors have focused much of their attention on former House Speaker John Perzel and the award of two multimillion-dollar contracts for computer services and whether the systems were used for campaigns.

Steve Miskin, a spokesman for the House Republican caucus, said it already has turned over 147,000 e-mails and thousands of other documents. He declined to comment on reports of yesterday's hearing.

"The whole grand jury process is under seal and we are respecting that seal and that process," he said.