Man in plot to kill Obama wants tattoos altered

A West Tennessee man who pleaded guilty in a plot to assassinate President Barack Obama wants to undergo surgery to alter his tattoos before he is sent to federal prison.
Daniel Cowart, 21, of Bells, pleaded guilty in March to eight federal charges. His sentencing scheduled for Thursday has now been postponed until Aug. 13.
Cowart and 19-year-old Paul Schlesselman, of Helena-West Helena, Ark., were charged in October 2008 with plotting a robbery and killing spree across several states that t was intended to end with the assassination of then-candidate Obama.
Schlesselman is serving a 10-year prison term on his guilty plea.
The Jackson Sun, which first reported the sealed request, said pictures of Cowart show a swastika on his right shoulder and an iron cross on the left side of his chest. Federal investigators have said Cowart and Schlesselman are white supremacist skinheads.
The reason for Cowart’s request for the tattoo alteration was not clear, as his motion is still under seal. However, an unsealed response from U.S. Attorney Lawrence Laurenzi said that allowing Cowart to have the surgery would create a difficult precedent for the U.S. Marshal’s Service.
Cowart’s lawyer, Joe Byrd Jr., declined to talk to the newspaper about his motion, but said the government response should have been sealed as well.
The response from the government said that any surgery poses some risk of infection or other adverse outcomes and the Marshal’s Service doesn’t want to be liable.
Prosecutors also opposed the motion on the basis that he would have to be moved from the Obion County Jail to the Madison County Jail for the surgery.
“The Marshal’s Service is wary of setting a precedent whereby they are obligated to devote substantial resources to transporting and escorting inmates between facilities for the purposes of voluntary cosmetic surgery,’’ Laurenzi said.
Laurenzi also noted that the Bureau of Prisons, which handles federal inmates after sentencing, takes tattoos into account when deciding where they will be placed.
“`The Bureau believes that the ability to inspect intact tattoos would allow them to properly designate the defendant and put them in the best possible position to provide for his care and safety while incarcerated,’’ he wrote.