This is a strong possibility, so I’m not surprised that I found an article that states this possibility. In my opinion, the approval of the merger was never in question. If they wanted to deny the approval they could have done it much sooner. This is just leveraging in an effort to get something out of this deal.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucejapsen/2018/11/23/before-clearing-cvs-aetna-deal-new-york-may-want-what-california-got/#1e302f056b6d