"They were boisterous, slapping high-fives, laughing and so forth."

CourtTV reports on the trial of the five Kerry campaign workers accused of slashing the tires on 30 vans that Republicans had rented to help get voters to the polls in Milwaukee in 2004.

And here's a more substantial report on the trial, which began on January 8th:

Based on testimony given last year in the preliminary hearing, there is no eyewitness who can identify the men as the vandals. There is a security guard who says he saw someone scurrying in the dark, acting drunk and urinating on a wall. There are police and the Firestone representative, who are to testify about the damage found and the repairs required.

Then there is the bulk of the alleged link between the defendants and the slashed tires: their purported statements in the weeks before the election about planning hijinks on GOP headquarters dubbed "Operation Elephant Takeover" and what they were heard saying after they returned to Democratic Party headquarters about the same time as the police say the tires were cut.

Four of the five men - all but Howell - are quoted by others in the criminal complaint as saying they took part.