The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a motion seeking to extend a pair of deadlines for a lawsuit filed by U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel, to give the Trump administration more time to continue merger talks between the two companies. 

In early January, then-President Joe Biden blocked the proposed $14.9 billion sale of U.S. Steel to Japanese-owned Nippon Steel, after the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States warned of national security concerns. The two companies then challenged the decision in court, alleging that Biden had scuttled the deal in order to curry favor with voters in Pennsylvania, where U.S. Steel is headquartered. 

According to CNN, the DOJ is looking to extend the deadline for briefings in the lawsuit by three weeks, and to push the start of oral arguments from late April to early May, to "allow the government to complete its ongoing discussions" with the two companies regarding the proposed sale. And although President Trump had previously signaled his opposition to the merger in the lead-up to the 2024 election, he expressed a willingness to at least allow Nippon to purchase a minority stake in U.S. Steel, describing the idea as "very exciting" during a February news conference.