Bernie Sanders has been saying it on the campaign trail for quite a while now and he’s hardly the only one. There was a sense among much of the pundit class that the Democratic National Committee under the leadership of Debbie Wasserman-Schultz was in the tank for Hillary Clinton since well before the primary even kicked off. Oh, they denied it in public at every opportunity and the various vice-chairs of the DNC were careful to talk about their highly qualified slate of candidates and the spirited debate to come, but it was a tough story to swallow.

Now those protests are ringing a bit more hollow. Among the leaked DNC documents allegedly stolen by the hacker “Guccifer 2.0” was at least one internal memo which set forth plans for the coronation of Hillary Clinton and it was sent shortly after Sanders got into the race. (New York Post)

[EDIT: This article was edited to reflect that the memo was dated the month after Bernie Sanders announced his candidacy. Apologies for the error in dates, though the impact of it is essentially the same.]

A document leaked by a hacker who took responsibility for the Democratic National Committee data breach appears to show the DNC coordinating with Hillary Clinton from the start of the presidential campaign — just as Bernie Sanders has claimed.

A document to the DNC dated May 26, 2015 – a month after Sanders kicked off his presidential bid — declared that “our goals & strategy” are to “provide a contrast between the GOP field and HRC.”

HRC stands for Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The document, posted online by the hacker “Guccifer 2.0,” outlines ways to hit back at the GOP presidential field, such as “use specific hits to muddy the waters around ethics, transparency and campaign finance attacks on HRC.”

In light of all we’ve come to learn of Clinton’s problems, there’s really nothing shocking in this document beyond the fact that it managed to see the light of day. Sanders isn’t named, but DWS and her team were obviously ready to swat aside any challenge to the Historic First Female President. Further, they were well aware of all the baggage Clinton was bringing to the campaign (though perhaps not the extent of just how bad the FBI investigation would get) and were preparing to defuse some of her scandals. The need to muddy the waters over her problems with “ethics, transparency” and her Wall Street ties was baked into the cake.

It’s likely that none of this would have been a problem for the Democrats if not for the ham handed way that Wasserman-Schultz handled the entire mess from day one. While smiling and talking out of one side of her face about a fair, impartial process, DWS was making one move after another to try to stop Sanders from building any momentum. Her choice to limit the number of debates and schedule them for times when only insomniacs who haunt the upper end of the cable channel racks would be watching was noticed immediately by both the media and Bernie Sanders’ followers. Fairly soon the tactics came under public indictment far more so than their preferred candidate.

Proving that nobody in American politics is 100% Teflon, DWS is paying a price for it now. Just yesterday we saw that even Nancy Pelosi was refusing to offer her support for the embattled national committee chair. While still holding on to her title (in name at least), liberal sources such as Daily KOS are reporting that Debbie Downer is being moved to the back burner and her duties are falling on her assumed successor, Brandon Davis. If you’re not familiar with that name, I’m sure you’ll be stunned to learn that he’s the National Political Director for the Service Employees International Union.

I’ll run off and grab the smelling salts now, as I’m sure you’ve just fainted from shock.