Copernicus
Industrial Grade Linguist
What he believes about the election really doesn't matter in this case. He chose to do something he repeatedly was told was illegal.
True, but that doesn't mean that he really believed what he was being told. I read Mary L Trump's book called Too Much and Never Enough, which gave her experiences regarding his grasp on reality. According to her, he has always had trouble accepting the reality of failure and simply refuses to believe that anything could have been his fault. He lies and contradicts himself all the time, but then he comes to believe his own lies. If she was right about him, he very easily could have convinced himself that he really had won and that the election was stolen from him. He would stop at nothing to get at the facts of how he was cheated out of his victory. The official vote counts could not possibly have been right. Even former Republican allies and supporters were refusing to help him uncover the facts, because they wanted him out of the way. A bunch of backstabbers.