City Council Speaker Corey Johnson apologized on Monday for calling the alleged attack on Jussie Smollett “an attempted modern-day lynching” — amid reports claiming it was all a hoax.

The openly gay Democrat walked back his comments on Jan. 30 blasting a New York Times story for describing the assault as a possible hate crime.

“‘POSSIBLE’ hate crime?” the 37-year-old tweeted. “This was an attempted modern-day lynching carried out by homophobic racists. PSA — please call racist things racist.”

Times deputy metro editor/politics Dean Chang replied on Monday, “We still don’t know all the answers here, but this is why we typically exercise more caution than you and others might prefer.”

Johnson agreed.

“You are right,” he responded to Chang. “As a gay man, I was deeply disturbed with what I was reading. But the tweet was unfair to investigators and journalists who often need time to figure out the facts of a case. As you said, we still don’t know all of the answers. I apologize.”

Over the weekend, the Chicago Police Department said new evidence in the case has “shifted the trajectory” of its investigation — as reports emerged that Smollett allegedly paid two bodybuilding brothers $3,500 to stage the attack on Jan. 29.