Bill Maher says he knows who to blame for Comey fallout — and liberals will be angry over who it is

President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey earlier this week, citing a recommendation from the Department of Justice over Comey's handling of the FBI's investigation into Hillary Clinton and her use of a private email server.

According to the DOJ, Comey "usurped" then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch by giving a press conference on July 5, 2016, announcing the FBI wouldn't recommend charges against Clinton. Comey further damaged the FBI and DOJ by laying out details of the case, which the Trump-era DOJ said is a break from standard DOJ procedures.

But according to liberal HBO host Bill Maher, the entire Comey scandal — and the heat Trump has taken since the firing — would have never happened if it weren't for former President Bill Clinton.

Maher said on Friday's "Real Time" that Bill Clinton is to blame for the Comey fallout, citing a tarmac meeting he had with Lynch last summer in Arizona just days before Hillary Clinton was to be deposed by federal investigators.

"A lot of this is because of Bill Clinton," Maher said Friday. "The reason why Comey had to say what he did is because the attorney general had to recuse herself because [Bill Clinton] walked on her plane.

"Let's not forget that," Maher emphasized.

"Bill Clinton, once again, f**ked up his wife’s life. If Bill Clinton hadn’t walked on Loretta Lynch’s plane, then she would have been making the statement instead of Comey," Maher explained, adding that Comey was put in an "almost impossible" position.

"That’s where we are — Bill Clinton," Maher said. "Let’s put the blame where it belongs."

Indeed, the reason Comey gave the press conference on July 5, instead of Lynch, was because Comey severely questioned Lynch's partiality and worried what would happen to the FBI's credibility if it appeared Lynch was acting in the political favor of Clinton, according to Comey's inner circle.

Prior to the late-June tarmac meeting, Comey's closest advisers say that he already distrusted Lynch, but it was that meeting with Bill Clinton that proved to be too much for Comey, who immediately decided that he would inform America of the FBI's conclusion in the Hillary probe, not Lynch.