Not a troll, but definitely not privy to inside information. Sounds like to me he took testimony about divestitures and B6 proactively offering them and inferred there was some back room deal going on, and that tiny ember was enough to spark rampant speculation.

The government isn’t going to back off this because ultimately it’s not about negotiating the best possible terms on this particular deal for the ‘people’, it’s about the chance at securing a precedent decision and using that case law in anti trust cases moving forward. Secondarily the antitrust arm of the DOJ is relatively small, and an expensive trial helps justify their slice f the budget.

This doesn’t mean I think the government will win, rather saying they have nothing to lose taking this all the way to a judgment.