SAY CHEESE

Ken Burns Explains Why He Has a Photo With Clarence Thomas

The documentary filmmaker was pictured alongside the Supreme Court Justice and billionaire David Koch.

Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns has spoken out after a photo surfaced of him with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and billionaire David Koch. A spokesperson for the documentarian said while Koch had funded one of his projects, he has no relationship with Thomas. “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,” the spokesperson told Variety. The photo appeared Friday when ProPublica published an investigation into Thomas, revealing he attended at least two donor summits for the right-wing billionaire Koch brothers.