re: shoots that argument through the temples
The concept of "argument" is lost on you. When reality is arbitrary, there is no debate.
In your mind, the "secret pardons" are already at the level of a known fact, and the complete lack of any evidence whatsoever means nothing.
Had you decided that Bush had pardoned all the evil people according to your predictions, but used a giant neuralizer in the Washington Monument to wipe all our memories of the fact, it would be at exactly the same level of proof.