Benjamin T. Wolf, a Democratic candidate for a congressional race in Illinois, has been accused of frequent verbal and physical assault against his ex-girlfriend, who was a former intern on his campaign, according to a report published Wednesday.
Wolf, in a crowded Democratic race for Rep. Mike Quigley’s seat in North Chicago, has become known as the “cannabis candidate” for smoking marijuana in front of an American flag and lecturing people on the dangers of the AR-15 while holding the weapon in a video he shot in his living room.
Katarina Coates claims Wolf hurt her on six occasions and “doxxed” her by posting her name and home address on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
“He actually hit me, threw me to the ground, put his foot on my chest. He was really angry. He grabbed my face,” Coates told Politico. “I thought it was normal. I cannot explain the logic. It seemed like he cared about me when he did that. After that time he stood on my chest, he went and took me for chocolate cake. I kind of associated it with his caring … There were times I would ask him: ‘do you ever regret hitting me?’ He would say: “No, but I’m relieved when you put your head down so I don’t have to do it again.”
Coates did not file police reports about the alleged abuse but said she reported it on three occasions in 2017 to DePaul University, where she was a student, and to Roosevelt University, where Wolf was an adjunct professor.
DePaul University’s deputy director of public safety, Michael Dohm, said he “personally” told Wolf he was not permitted on campus.
A DePaul philosophy professor, Jason Hill, also filed a report with campus security saying a student had approached him about a disturbing incident with Wolf.
When Wolf learned about the initial incident, he began threatening Hill and in one such email told Hill “you should just commit suicide.”
Another ex-girlfriend of Wolf’s, Kari Fitzgerald, said he was not physically violent with her during their relationship four years ago, but said the kind of verbal abuse Coates spoke of was the same she experienced.
“I wanted to validate her. And say: ‘this is a bad guy and I believe her because this is what he did to me,'” Fitzgerald said. “When he thinks he’s been wronged or threatened in any way he lashes out … It’s definitely a situation where he’s escalating. There’s abusive, escalating behavior he’s demonstrating.”
Wolf told Politico the newly published allegations were politically motivated.
“I walk around this city with a black leather jacket and leather boots and this city is scared of me,” he said. “We are talking about sex and drugs, we have no corporate donors.”
Wolf’s past representation of employers has also come under serious questioning after he described himself as an “Iraq veteran” and wrote on Veterans Day that he had “served multiple terms in Africa and Iraq.”
The former State Department special agent and tenured member of the Foreign Service defended his statements on the basis that “the military doesn’t have a patent on the word ‘served.'”
