A federal judge appointed during the Trump administration on Tuesday denied a legal appeal from Bradley Cadenhead, the founder of the online extremist network known as “764,” upholding his 80-year prison sentence in Texas, according to court records and reporting by the Daily Caller News Foundation. Cadenhead, now 20, had challenged his May 2023 sentencing on child pornography and related charges, arguing that his trial counsel was ineffective and that mitigating factors from his upbringing were not adequately considered. U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman rejected the appeal, stating it largely reiterated arguments already dismissed in a previous state-level appeal.

In his appeals, Cadenhead argued that his trial lawyer provided “ineffective” assistance by persuading him to plead guilty without considering the option for a psychological assessment, the outlet reported. The group behind Cadenhead’s accusations, known in law enforcement and academic reports as a nihilistic, violent extremist online network, has been linked to the grooming of minors and distribution of child exploitation material, according to federal authorities.

Cadenhead created the group as a teenager on the chat platform Discord, naming it after numbers from his Texas ZIP code. He pleaded guilty to multiple counts of possession of child pornography in 2023 after federal and state investigations and was sentenced to serve 80 years in prison.