traitor vs malefactor

traitor and malefactor both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
traitor	Yes	No	No	No
malefactor	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, malefactor is a hypernym of traitor; that is, malefactor is a word with a broader meaning than traitor:

traitor: someone who betrays his country by committing treason
malefactor: someone who has committed a crime or has been legally convicted of a crime

Other hypernyms of traitor include criminal, crook, felon, outlaw.

traitor (noun)	malefactor (noun)
someone who betrays his country by committing treason	someone who has committed a crime or has been legally convicted of a crime
a person who says one thing and does another