The whole "confidential source" and the FFL prosecutions aside, at least when it comes to the upcoming Rule 41p Brown is not a quisling or a "traitor". He should not be a board member because he is
an idiot.
Hanlon's Razor: "
Never ascribe to malice what you can to incompetence."
Short version of what Brown and NFATCA were up to was they'd been in talks with the ATF for years to get rid of CLEO sign-off, in of itself a laudable goal.
Where the idiocy comes in is Brown and NFATCA had no clue how to negotiate. That they forgot the entire point of the NFA was to keep the general public from getting NFA items wherever possible. And that they believed they could negotiate in good faith with the .gov. especially the ATF. And further, that they should continue negotiations with the ATF once Obama and Holder were in office, instead of just leaving damn well enough alone.
Instead of give-and-take in negotiations, laying out what they wanted and waiting on the ATF to counter, Brown and NFATCA immediately offered up the idea of eliminating trusts in trade for removing CLEO, or trusts making them so burdensome people would not want to submit them to the NFA examiners. They thought that by offering the idea that would eliminate the NFA Examiners burden of reviewing trusts, the ATF would be more inclined to agree to their desire to remove CLEO sign-off.
Then, like Darth Vader to Lando Calrissian, "
I have altered the deal. Pray I do not alter it further." and that idea was pounced on as the basis for Rule 41p.