They were patriots!
Ok, if there was a stolen election, and our democracy was under threat, then yes, the patriotic thing to do might be to fight back against it.
The question then is: "Was it a stolen election?"
Of course it was! There were so many irregularities!
That was a case made only by politically-motivated actors and media channels, without evidence.
In fact, when actual claims of fraud were made, the lack of evidence caused courts to reject all of them, media channels to issue retractions, and lawyers are losing their licenses for making baseless claims
The department of the former administration tasked with election security said that this was the most secure election in American history
Well they believed it was stolen!
And before they resorted to breaking the law, they had a burden of proof to meet. It is not enough to believe something without evidence.
Everything they were seeing said it was stolen! They were acting in good faith!
They may have truly believed because of near brainwashing by the sources they chose to trust
But the evidence against their claim was massive and widely available.
The fact they didn't seek it out doesn't make them the victim of bad faith actors