Is Valerie Jarrett the mastermind behind the reported order to Baltimore cops to “stand down”? The mayor’s announced policy to allow a “space to destroy”? Did she counsel Mayor Rawlings Blake to avoid calling up the National Guard after Saturday’s disturbances? Did she urge the city to let the students gathering Monday after school remain uncontrolled as they looted a mall?

We’ll probably never know what she told the mayor, but you can bet that whatever Stephanie Rawlings Blake heard from the power behind the Obama throne, she took it seriously. Daniel Halper of the Weekly Standard:

Don't worry, Valerie Jarrett is in "regular contact" with the mayor of Baltimore, the White House announced late Tuesday night. 

"Jarrett also remained in regular contact with Mayor Rawlings Blake (Baltimore, MD) and Maryland Governor Larry Hogan," an unnamed White House spokesman told the media.

Jarrett also conducted a conference call with 50 “local leaders from across the country” that was long on Democrat mayors of big cities. But what really matters is what she said in private to her Democrat mayor pal 35 miles or so up I 95.  Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican, is much less likely to have weighed her advice as heavily as the mayor.