An image shared on Facebook purportedly shows Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden with former Massachusetts State Rep. candidate Matt Trowbridge.

Facebook/Screenshot

Verdict: False

The man in the image is not Trowbridge. The photo shows Biden with the father of a girl that performed at a 2018 political event.

Fact Check:

In the image, Biden can be seen facing a young girl. A red arrow points to a man in the background and identifies that man as Trowbridge, a former Democratic candidate for the Massachusetts State House of Representatives.

The Facebook post appears to reference a video uploaded to YouTube on Oct. 2 by the channel Predator Poachers Massachusetts that purportedly shows an amateur “sting” operation against a man that allegedly tried to solicit sex from a young boy. In the video’s caption, the channel claims the man is Trowbridge.

Check Your Fact didn’t find any national or state media outlets at the time of publication reporting about Trowbridge being charged related to the alleged incident. Police in Charlton and Norton, Massachusetts, told PolitiFact they have no record of an arrest or charge for Trowbridge, and a Dudley District Court official also said they don’t have any record of a criminal or civil case.

The Facebook post attempts to suggest that the man in the photo is Trowbridge. However, the man in the image is actually Jared Maher, who confirmed he is the person pictured to the Duluth News Tribune and PolitiFact. He and his daughter have been anonymized in the image due to privacy concerns.

Maher and his then-11-year-old daughter attended the 2018 North Dakota Democratic-Nonpartisan League Party convention in Grand Forks, the Duluth News Tribune reported. Biden was the keynote speaker at the 2018 event, according to The Associated Press. (RELATED: Image Claims Donald Trump Currently Faces A Court Case For Allegedly Sexually Assaulting A 13-Year-Old)

Maher’s daughter sang a mash-up of “Danny Boy” and “America the Beautiful” at the convention, according to the Duluth News Tribune, and Biden thanked her for the performance afterwards. In a written statement to the Duluth News Tribune following the image’s misuse online, Maher said, “We are processing it as a family, attorneys are involved and the fact that the picture involved our then-11-year-old daughter has us very upset.”

The Sun Chronicle, a local newspaper in Attleboro, Massachusetts, reported that Trowbridge announced his run for office in October 2009 against Republican incumbent Rep. Elizabeth Poirier for a seat in the Massachusetts State House of Representatives. Trowbridge dropped out of the race in April 2010 citing personal issues.