Deep dive by Bart Jensen from USA Today:

The strategy is nothing new. Trump refused to say he’d concede if he lost to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016. Trump was filing lawsuits through Election Day that year, making claims of fraud under the banner of “Stop the Steal” that returned in 2020.

The rejections of 2020 election fraud claims in court were resounding. The U.S. Supreme Court turned away Trump’s cases. A federal judge in Michigan called one lawsuit “a historic and profound abuse of the judicial process.” Arizona lawmakers laughed at Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani’s lack of evidence. In a related lawsuit, Dominion Voting Systems reached a $787 million settlement with Fox News over false claims Trump and his allies promoted − and the right-leaning cable network repeated − accusing the company’s machines of switching Trump votes to President Joe Biden’s column.

Despite those failures, Trump is a tireless litigant who can be expected to try again.

“The ability to point to a battle in the courts provides a veneer of legitimacy,” said Sean Morales-Doyle, director of voting rights at the Brennan Center for Justice. “It is nailing hooks in the wall now so they have something to hang their hat on later when they want to question the outcome of the election. It sows distrust and it’s something you can point back to later when you’re upset with the outcome of the election.”

Changes since 2020 could curb lawsuits. Congress tried to reduce challenges to election results by updating the archaic Electoral Count Act governing how presidential votes are tallied. Some lawyers might shy away from election cases because several of Trump’s lawyers were charged criminally, convicted and sanctioned for their advocacy.

The Trump campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment….