there's a completely different theory. He self-destructed. In the same way that serial killers unconsciously leave clues at the scene. They want to get caught. Maybe Cody wanted a way out of the life that he built (all the pressure of you know, his infamy), and decided he needed a plausible out, in a way that allowed him to save face. So he self-destructed. It's an easy out: it's a lot easier this way to someone like Cody than it would be to have to face everyone and say, "look I'm done with this, I don't want to do this anymore, it's too hot, I'm too stressed out". Doing this he loses his FFL, and his whole life as Mr. anti-gubmnt is over, so he doesn't have to admit that he gave up, just that he made a simple mistake and paid the price for it, and that took him out of the game.
The other theory is that the feds approached him, gave him two choices, go out like this, or your fate will be much worse. In this way you can quit your business and we'll be painted as the bad guys (you can then blame it on the JBT's publicly), and you'll still be a hero in the public eye, but a martyr'ed one, out of the hearts and minds of the people. So he'll go down in infamy. So they (feds) orchestrated the whole thing and he was in on it from the get go. He leaves the country to make it look like he's evading (this makes the op more plausible to the public). Press picks up on the story and does the rest of the work. He comes back, gets a felony conviction with time served, FFL goes away, and Ghost Gunner goes away quietly forever.
BTW Alex Jones is 100% a CIA operative (he's just another control, sent to be a mouthpiece for all the whackjobs, so that they feel validated and to prevent any one of them from feeling ignored and acting out their whackjob fantasies in violent ways). With Alex Jones adopting every conceivable whackjob conspiracy theory, all the nuts out there feel validated. Trump as president is the same exact thing, another form of control. They're just figureheads that function as societal pressure cooker release valves. They give a voice to the voiceless so they feel validated. Same thing with Obammy, same thing with the next president too. The country itself doesn't change, but all the attention is on whether the figurehead decided he wanted one too many shrimp for dinner, or whether his daughter farted at the wrong time.
It's 1 big game.