A Cancer at the Center of the Presidency: Robert Roche a Chinese Agent-Of-Influence?

A Cancer at the Center of the Presidency: Robert Roche a Chinese Agent-Of-Influence?HT: Breitbart.Agent-of-Influence (def.): a well-placed, trusted contact who actively and consciously serves a foreign interest or foreign intelligence services on some matters while retaining his integrity on others. On August, 19, 2011, during the heat of the Obama Administration’s trade negotiations with China, Vice President Joe Biden huddled with his top trade advisors at the St. Regis Hotel in Beijing, China. One seat away from Mr. Biden sat Robert Roche.
Mr. Roche is a mysterious figure, an American expatriate and Obama bundler living in Shanghai, China. Mr. Roche’s company, Acorn International, is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange and is in partnership with Hu Jintao’s government.
The importance of this partnership was exemplified at the 2011 State Dinner for Chinese President Hu Jintao (above), where something rare and virtually unprecedented in American politics occurred.

Three living presidents--Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter--all attended the event and were seated at the head table. Also seated at the power table were Sen. John Kerry and his billionaire wife, Theresa Heinz Kerry; General Electric chief Jeffrey Immelt; Coca Cola Chairman and CEO Muhtar Kent; and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Joining them was Robert Roche--a man whose inconsequential infomercial business hawks everything from cell phones, to exercise equipment, to breast enhancement products. Telegraphing his influence, Mr. Roche received the most coveted honor of all, a seat just one seat away from President Obama. 

Left in the cheap seats were former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and numerous other titans of politics, finance, and business with billions of dollars in assets in China, including JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon, CEO of Disney Robert Iger, and Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein.
How does a person like Roche--of such little consequence--rate a seat at the power table of the decade? Simple: it was to give Mr. Roche “face” in front of Chinese senior officials--the most valuable currency in Asia.
Since 2009, the name Robert Roche has appeared in the White House Visitor Logs 19 times, despite the fact that Mr. Roche does not reside in Georgetown but in Shanghai, some 10,000 miles away. Those visits include a December 21, 2009, private meeting with President Obama in the Oval Office; two meetings with then-Chief of Staff William Daley; a meeting with Deputy Chief of Staff Kristen J Sheehey in the West Wing; and a West Wing meeting with Assistant to the President Pete Rouse.Breitbart News has learned that a major television network tried to track Robert Roche down with no luck. Newsweek contacted Mr. Roche by email but he declined comment. On Sunday, the New York Post reports that efforts to reach Mr. Roche for comment had been unsuccessful. "Roche’s mother in Chicago referred calls to the Obama campaign," wrote the Post's Isabel Vincent and Melissa Klein. "The campaign declined to comment." But Americans deserve to know immediately why an infomercial executive with direct business ties to the Chinese regime has gained such influence and proximity to power inside the Obama White House.Read the full story here.