Four Spitzer administration officials violated the state’s ethics law when they used the State Police last summer to gather travel documents they hoped would tarnish Joseph L. Bruno, then the State Senate majority leader, according to a report released on Thursday by the State Commission on Public Integrity.

The report drew on 3,000 pages of testimony and thousands of internal documents, and depicts an administration on a war footing, with Gov. Eliot Spitzer seething over attacks from Mr. Bruno and eager to strike back.

It also describes an extensive — but ultimately fruitless — effort by the governor’s top aides to deny the commission e-mail messages and documents that could shed light on the administration’s actions last spring and summer, when internal discussions began about whether Mr. Bruno’s travels on state aircraft could pose a political problem for the senator.