But that isn’t the case here. The FAA is very clear, you must have the documents or you are in the wrong. That is it. You are only innocent by having the documents. To pass off a plane are good but not have its documents very clearly puts them guilty. There is no gray area here. The FAA and NTSB are very clear about this and who is at fault. When planes change hands or get work done, everything must be documented or it never happened. To then sell a plane and claim it was up to any spec, but without it being documented, then it isn’t up to spec.
The only way to prove they are innocent is to have those documents. The documents were audited, they didn’t have them, so they are being charged. They have been shown beyond any reasonable doubt that they did not have the required documents, otherwise there would have been no charges. The only way to prove their innocents is to show the documents that they failed to show in the audit, that they didn’t have, that lead to the charges. The reasonable doubt was already established when they failed the audit.