The House Intelligence Committee released an unclassified version of a whistleblower complaint Thursday alleging multiple acts of potentially criminal wrongdoing by President Trump, including when he attempted on July 25 to press the Ukrainian president into investigating 2020 Democratic front-runner Joe Biden.

The complaint, which you can read here, certainly looks bad for the White House. It certainly looks bad for the president’s personal attorney, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who should be put under oath sooner rather than later. It suggests that there are multiple, credible, first-hand witnesses who can be called forward immediately to testify to the veracity of the whistleblower’s allegations. It also provides careful, detailed directions for those investigating the president's alleged wrongdoing.

In fact, that is exactly what the complaint is: a detailed road map for an impeachment inquiry. It is not, however, irrefutable proof of the president’s guilt. I will say it again: The version of the complaint released Thursday is not a smoking gun.

Of course, many in our very reliable and restrained press are treating it exactly like it is, because, well, they may be a bit eager to see the Trump presidency brought to a premature conclusion.

“The call is damning. The whistleblower complaint, in its blunt rendering of facts, is devastating,” said the Washington Post’s Greg Miller.

Former Politico and Washingtonian editor Garrett Graff said, “Nobody who reads this can have any doubt that there was an active panic and coverup inside the White House.”

“The whistleblower complaint makes clear how much the Trump presidency clings to conspiracy theories and then works to make them a reality,” said GQ correspondent Julia Ioffe. “Pizzagate was just the amuse bouche.”

Senior Daily Beast opinion editor and New York Daily News columnist Harry Seigel added elsewhere, “Lordy, there are tapes — hiding Trump's politically sensitive recordings in a classified storage system.”

Then there is the Washington Post’s Matt Viser:

There is also NBC News’ Mike Memoli, who has moved on already to questioning Vice President Mike Pence’s (i.e. Trump's successor should he be removed from office) alleged culpability in the alleged wrongdoing:

What did Pence know? — Mike Memoli (@mikememoli) September 26, 2019

“They got caught. Not sure what the ramifications are or will be, but they got caught red-handed,” said MSNBC commentator Chris Hayes.

Boston Globe columnist Michael Cohen added as a statement of fact, “White House staff knew the president had committed an abuse of presidential power ... and covered it up.”

Members of the press are not wrong when they say the complaint is definitely bad news for the Trump White House. But they are wrong to imply (or declare outright) that it is evidence of what the whistleblower alleges. The author of the version of the complaint released Thursday is quite clear when he (or she) writes, “I was not a direct witness to most of the events described.”

The complaint makes the allegations against the president specific. It gives lawmakers and other investigative authorities much to work with, but there is still a lot of work to be done. Treating the complaint like it is the final chapter in this whistleblower episode is premature. It is a bit like spiking the football 10 or 20 yards out from the end zone.