By Common Dreams Staff

This image files appears to have been created by the Clinton campaign over the weekend, well before The Associated Press declared her the Democratic nominee. (Common Dreams)

This piece originated with Common Dreams.

Twitter blew up on Tuesday after it was revealed that an email sent to Hillary Clinton supporters—one celebrating Monday’s premature and controversial nomination call—contained an image labeled “secret win” which gave many the impression that the campaign was ready to pounce even before The Associated Press and other outlets made their surprise announcements on the eve of Tuesday’s primaries.

As this widely shared tweet shows:

The images in this Clinton email are labeled “secret win.” pic.twitter.com/YR4uCdQTZv — Christina Bellantoni (@cbellantoni) June 7, 2016

Furthermore, based on the individual urls of the images, the files (here, here, and here) appear to have been created by the Clinton campaign over the weekend, well before the AP controversially declared that Clinton had secured the Democratic Party nomination on the basis of superdelegate “commitments.”

For example, the piece of the image that reads “So this just happened” is dated Saturday, June 4. The other smaller images which created the larger image sent in the email are all dated in the same way.

Sorry, yesterday I said there was no proof of collusion. Is #SecretWin the smoking gun? https://t.co/DXv7ZbDRzZ — Keith Kahn (@keithkahn) June 7, 2016

@AP you’ve got some ‘splaining to do – how did the Clinton campaign get your tweet two days prior to its release? #SecretWin #FeelTheBern — Sam (@LastSonofAnshan) June 7, 2016

Though there was public worry and speculation that some media outlets might attempt to declare Clinton the “presumptive nominee” before Tuesday’s consequential voting contests were complete, the questions surrounding the Clinton campaign email only heightened the anger of Sanders supporters critical of the way in which the media has reported the delegate count throughout the primary season.

The revelations also added to the call for AP to retract its declaration, which came ahead of seven remaining presidential primaries and specifically based on the misleading inclusion of superdelegates.

In an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt that will air later on Tuesday evening, Sanders himself said he was “disappointed” in the decision by AP to report the results as they have.

As Jim Naureckas, communications director for the media watchdog group Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR), explained on Tuesday, the media’s premature declaration should be seen as a disservice to the democratic process: