Ken Burns Distances Himself From Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas After Photo

Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns began trending on social media Friday for appearing in a photo with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and billionaire David Koch.

However, Burns said he does not have a relationship with Thomas, other than taking the photo. Koch has funded one of Burns’ documentaries.

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“Around ten years ago, Ken was stopped and asked to take a photograph with a Supreme Court Justice and David Koch, who was a supporter of public television and would later provide some funding for his film, The Vietnam War. So he took the photo, as he has done with many, many others. Other than the taking of that photograph and innocuous pleasantries, that’s the extent of his contact with Justice Thomas,” a spokesperson for Burns wrote in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.

The photo appeared in a ProPublica article published Friday that described previously unknown details about the relationship between Thomas and Koch, claiming that Thomas attended at least two donor events for the Koch’s libertarian political network and was asked to speak to encourage donations. Burns is not mentioned in the article, other than appearing in the lead photo, which the article says was taken at the Bohemian Grove, an all-men’s retreat in Northern California.

The article itself also attracted attention as the latest in a series of controversies for the Supreme Court justice. In ProPublica articles published earlier this year, the publication reported on years of luxury trips that Thomas had reportedly accepted from Harlan Crow, a real estate magnate and major Republican donor, and not disclosed to the Supreme Court. Thomas later disclosed the trips and defended his prior omission, saying that the information had been “inadvertently omitted.”

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