I’m not a lawyer, but I don’t think mens rea is a factor here due to Trump’s wording. If I recall, his words were something along the lines of, “I just need you to find me x votes.” It doesn’t matter if Trump truly believes that there was fraud in the election when he is requesting someone to commit a felony (election fraud by manufacturing votes) on his behalf. On the other hand, if he only went as far as saying something like, “I need you to look into this again”, he would be fine. Asking an election official to look into it again isn’t a crime.
In regard to his wording, I could see them attempting to make a common claim when it comes to a Trump slip-up, and try to claim, “Well, that’s not really what he meant….”