Donald Trump's defense of this -- if he acknowledges it -- will be that it made good business sense and that everybody puts their best face forward to try to attract investors and seeks every possible advantage when filing taxes.
Which isn't a good legal defense but he's spent his whole career as a politician and before greasing the slippery slope with that sort of defense to the point where Rudy Giuliani going "I'm not sure crime is actually illegal" makes sense to a lot of people.
The real key to Trump's legal strategy is that he builds up the idea that any legal consequences for him are a politically motivated attack, which makes prosecutors feel like their case has to be bulletproof not just legally but in the face of public opinion.
