Sorry. I interpreted tptacek's first line as that he'd known about the patent and what it contained independently for "a little while". (It was a patent after all. Isn't that public information?)

Or was the news not the existence of the patent referenced on the tweet?

I can't speak for tptacek, but what I think he means (when he says "Been waiting a little while for this one to come out.") is that he's been waiting a while for confirmation that Dual EC was explicitly designed as an RNG with an escrow system.

I don't think he meant that he knew about it - instead, he was saying that there was evidence to be found that would demonstrate this.

But I'm not tptacek, so who knows what he really means.