The Installation of Zelensky

Marcus Cohen, the American attorney who hired a Washington lobbying firm to elevate the profile of Ukraine’s newly elected president during his campaign stated, he paid nearly $70,000 for the work out of his own pocket – and out of good will toward Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

For more than six weeks, the Washington lobbying firm Signal Group Consulting, LLC, worked for Cohen, who claimed to be a representative of then-presidential candidate Zelensky. Signal Group Consulting’s task, according to a Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) filing made public in April 20, was to “to elevate the profile” of the former comedian in the U.S. capital.

On July 17, Signal Group filed a disclosure report with the U.S. Justice Department outlining the work it did for Cohen on Zelensky’s behalf. That included facilitating meetings for the candidate’s then campaign chief-of-staff and an adviser with officials on Capitol Hill, the Trump administration, members of the news media, and the think tank and policy community in Washington.

For its work, Signal Group said it was paid almost $70,000 by Cohen.

The only problem is, Zelensky vehemently denied knowing anything about the work, and Cohen, who has no online presence and is self-employed. According to RFE when they went to the address listed in the FARA filings, they only found clothing boutiques and nail salons. What was even more curious was that another news outlet, the Babel Ukrainian news site The Babel found that the address was also listed on the Zelensky campaign’s official website.