HBO host Bill Maher on Friday called Russia’s influence in the 2016 election "the worst political scandal in American history.”

"OK. Let's talk the Russians. I do feel an obligation ... to put the facts ahead of the entertainment. I always try to get both in. But I feel like our country is hanging by a thread right now,” the “Real Time” host said on his show.

"Stop looking at the distractions and the clown show, and look at what matters. Which is, I would say, this is the worst political scandal in American history, and it's not going away.

"The crime is treason. The crime is colluding with Russia to fix an American election!”

ADVERTISEMENT

Maher turned to retired Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer Malcolm Nance, who served in the U.S. Intelligence community for more than 35 years, because he knows "where the bodies are buried."

"This may possibly be the greatest scandal in presidential history," said Nance. "For the first time in 240 years, we have a president who may have actually had influence and had been elected with the direct assistance, not just of a foreign power, but of a foreign intelligence agency."

"When the intelligence agencies are leaking like this, they are crying out,” Maher later said.

Maher was referring to leaks that led to national security adviser Michael Flynn's resignation on Monday, after revelations that Flynn misled senior White House staff about the nature of his conversations with a Russian ambassador.

Flynn blamed his resignation on the “fast pace of events” that prompted him to “inadvertently” give Vice President Pence and others “incomplete information” about his phone conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak, in December before the Trump administration took office.