Experts say the languishing legal campaign — which is no longer actively pushing to overturn the results in three or more states, as it would need to do to surpass Biden’s electoral votes — is less about flipping the election than about fueling a fundraising effort for Trump’s coffers and soothing his battered ego.

According to election law expert Rick Pildes, it was clear within a few days of the Nov. 3 election that the Trump campaign lacked the kind of claims and evidence needed for a court to overturn the result — and the effort has only spiraled downward from there, he said.

“Since then, all that has happened is that the claims have gotten more outlandish, the better lawyers have fled the campaign, and judges of all stripes — federal and state, whether appointed by Democrats or Republicans, including Trump appointees — have administered the formal death rites to this attempt,” said Pildes, a law professor at New York University….

In recent days, the key battleground states of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Minnesota have all certified Biden’s win, effectively dashing any lingering hopes the Trump campaign had to overturn the results there.

“Certification significantly shifts the burden of proof,” said Ned Foley, an election law expert and law professor at Ohio State University. “Post-certification, asking a court to undo the result is a very heavy lift.”…

Justin Levitt, an election law expert and professor at Loyola Law School, said that even though legal effort to overturn the election result is meritless, it is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.

“It was dead a few days after the election. It’s been undead since. And it’s remarkably hard to kill the undead for good,” he said of the campaign’s legal effort. “There will probably be some continued action in the courts either until [Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell puts his foot down or until the fundraising dries up.”