Texting between FBI, informant hurts case WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- Text messages between FBI agents and an informant are putting a damper on the U.S. Justice Department's prosecution efforts in a bribery sting, observers said. The Washington Post said text messages about sex, prostitutes, cigars and even the Village People have been read in court, allowing defense attorneys to attack the credibility of FBI agents working on the case. Prosecutors have failed to win convictions in two cases related to the sting, the most recent being the trial of six men and women accused of paying a bribe to win business with a foreign government. The Justice Department is now questioning whether to go forward with the remaining prosecutions in Operation Landslide, in which government informant Richard Bistrong helped agents target alleged corruption in the military arms and police supply industries, the newspaper said. In the most recent case, defense attorney Steven McCool used the texts to attack the character of the informant and the agents. McCool asked one agent if the term "da hood" was meant to have racial overtones and if he was expressing "a bias against gay people" when he referenced the Village People in a text about dressing up like a cowboy. "It was just foolish," said Steven Levin, a former federal prosecutor in Maryland, told the newspaper. Jurors are loath to convict if they feel that both the informant and the law enforcement officers have acted improperly. The newspaper said testimony suggests agents did not think their text messages would be used in court.