Pericles Abbasi

Abbasi attended the University of Chicago, earning his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees before moving on to Kent College of Law for a Juris Doctor degree.[1] He was awarded the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship. He met Kanye West in 2003 while filming a local hip-hop show and also competed in national quiz bowl competitions while a student.[1]

After graduating and passing the bar exam, Abbasi worked as an elections attorney and won cases before the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, the Supreme Court of Illinois, the Illinois Appellate Court and various electoral boards. His legal practice also focused on zoning, property tax appeals and real estate closings.

Abbasi led a challenge to the signatures collected by the Kanye West 2020 presidential campaign in Illinois. Upon review, the Illinois State Board of Elections determined that the West campaign did not have the required minimum amount of signatures and did not qualify for the presidential ballot.[2]

In 2023, the City of Chicago held elections for 22 newly created police district councils, one for each of the city's police districts. Abbasi supported the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police in these elections, legally representing several of their preferred candidates.[3][4]

Between 2020 and 2023, Abbasi posted prolifically on Twitter, averaging roughly 70 tweets per day. His interactive style with followers resonated, going from under one thousand followers in 2020 to reaching 24,000 in January 2023. He frequently posted about his Red Scare podcast fandom, singer Lana Del Rey and his odd meal choices. He retweeted other accounts who created memes with his image in them.[5]

Among other viral posts, Abbasi posted a screenshot of a viral Twitter interaction that occurred six months earlier between U.S. Politician Marsha Blackburn and Chinese journalist Chen Weihua, labeling it the "greatest ratio of all time." The screenshot post occurred in June 2021 and itself went viral, bringing even more attention to the original interaction.

He described one ongoing Twitter gag as him posing as an Alpha male who is also a "closeted homosexual."[7]

Abbasi ran for office in 2023, looking to secure one of three seats representing the newly formed Grand Central (25th) Police District Council.

During his campaign, an article in the Chicago Reader reported on Abbasi's social media posts, including one in which he referenced a criminal stereotype of African Americans, writing, “I’ve said in spaces that the horrible black american diet is the reason for 13/50!” [7] Blogger Malcom Kyeyune wrote in an opinion column that Abbasi is "so irony-poisoned from years of hard posting that the pain of drowning will be nothing short of sweet relief from his need to respond to likes and notifications" and also pointed out that "his tweets have little grounding in reality."[5]

Abbasi claimed the social media posts in question were in jest only. He secured the endorsement of celebrity podcaster Daria "Dasha" Nekrasova before coming in fifth out of five candidates with less than nine percent of the vote. In response to his social media history, the Chicago West Side chapter of the NAACP called for him to be disbarred.[8]

Abbasi's Chicago-area home was ransacked after the 2018 Christmas holiday.[9] He said in 2022 he was in a relationship (with a "woman").[7]