NEW YORK — Ever since an international anticorruption commission in Honduras announced its first case against lawmakers last year, the panel has been under attack from the officials it is supposed to be investigating.

Honduran lawmakers shut down that initial inquiry, and the commission barely survived a court challenge.

Now, another blockbuster investigation shows what the lawmakers were so concerned about. The inquiry, known as the Pandora Case, produced charges against 38 politicians and officials.

It details a scheme to divert government funds to the governing party’s 2013 election campaign. Those named include former government ministers, powerful members of President Juan Orlando Hernández’s National Party, and his brother-in-law. The plot was also said to have directed money to the opposition Liberal Party.

At stake is not just the outcome of this investigation, but the survival of what is viewed as the most powerful brake on official misconduct in Honduras.

By announcing the details of a new investigation last month, prosecutors are laying down a challenge to the government: Derail this case like the first one, and Hondurans could be provoked to breaking point.

“It’s very clear that people are fed up,’’ said Melissa Elvir Chávez, a lawyer with the Democracy Without Borders foundation. “I think it would be too big of a political risk if it is not allowed to advance in the anti-corruption court as it should.’’

Officials in Washington have supported the anticorruption effort in Honduras, encouraged by the idea that improving the rule of law in the Central American country is a necessary step to overcome the poverty and violence that push thousands of Hondurans to try and enter the United States each month.