HPE & DOJ have proposed a trial date of Jun 16 & Oct 27 resp. The latter conflicts with the merger termination date of Oct 9. The judge today declined to set the trial date and has asked both parties to work together to come up with a feasible trial timeline by Feb 21. A decision about the trial date will be made on Feb 28.
Until there is a final decision on the case (approve/block), both companies must refrain from carrying out any activities in support of the merger. This means no meetings, exchange of information, etc. Anything towards that effort may be in violation of the federal law.