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Hey, good morning. I'm Zach Stanton, Playbook's deputy editor. It's Thursday, April 13th,

and I'm keeping my eyes on a few big things today.

First, Donald Trump's legal drama continues to develop on multiple fronts.

We saw Trump is suing Michael Cohen for more than $500 million in damages, accusing his former

fixer of violating the returney client relationship.

But what this is really about is not so much $500 million, but about trying to undermine

Cohen's credibility ahead of him being expected to serve as a key witness in Trump's upcoming criminal

trial in Manhattan.

Secondly, the Washington Post scoop last night that special counsel Jack Smith, who is

investigating everything related to January 6th, is zeroing in on Trump's fundraising off of

false claims about the 2020 election, and specifically whether

those fundraising efforts amounted to wire fraud. That's something that you're going to want to

keep your eye on. Beyond Trump, I'm curious about some of the other Republicans who are running

or maybe running for president in 2024. Yesterday morning we saw Senator Tim Scott, Republican of

South Carolina, officially unveil his exploratory committee. Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida is

heading to D.C. next week. My colleague Alex Eisenstadt scooped that. And while here, DeSantis is

expected to meet with Republican members of Congress and other

conservative leaders for what is being called a meet-and-grite policy discussion.

And the RNC announced yesterday that the first GOP presidential debate will be hosted by Fox News

and coming to Milwaukee in August.

2024 will be here before you know it.

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