Ever since the accusations against Danny Masterson first surfaced, we’ve been wanting to hear a good response from Ashton Kutcher. Not only did they star in That ”70s Show forever ago, they remained good friends who went on to make Netflix sitcom The Ranch, too. That show was still going when Masterson was accused by multiple women of sexual assault, leading to his character being written off.

Through all that Ashton remained silent. But now the questions are coming up again. That ’90s Show has reunited every living cast member from the original show except for Masterson, whose controversial rape trial is kind of up in the air now.

Related: Danny Masterson Rape Case A Mistrial??

Now, with a few years to gather his thoughts, Ashton is finally ready to answer questions about his old friend. In a new interview with Esquire, he explained how the accusations and subsequent charges were so hard to come to terms with. See, despite Hyde being the bad boy of That ’70s Show, Masterson was actually the mentor to all of the young stars, keeping them in line, off drugs and other harmful decisions. Ashton recalls:

“He’s like, ‘One f**king rule: Don’t do anything f**king stupid and f**k this up. Because if you f**k it up, you f**k it up for everybody.’”

Well, he broke that one we guess.

Ashton says he’s still in touch with Danny’s little brother Chris Masterson and reveals he’s holding out hope. He wants Masterson “to be found innocent of the charges brought against him.”

Wow. What??

It’s not that he’s saying he wants he pal to be let off the hook for rape, he wants Masterson to be innocent. We guess he figures if a court of law finds his friend not guilty, he can take that as the truth? And embrace him again? He’ll just ignore all the accusations by these women? He told the mag:

“Ultimately, I can’t know. I’m not the judge. I’m not the jury. I’m not the DA. I’m not the victim. And I’m not the accused. And so, in that case, I don’t have a space to comment… I just don’t know.”

Wow, that’s a long way from just believing women. Obviously there are going to be nuances from case to case, but we’re talking about multiple women with credible accounts. And he’s just going to ignore those because he isn’t the jury? We know it’s so hard to square your idealized version of someone with the worst that they’ve done, but when things like this happen, you can’t just bury your head in the sand because you want your friend back.

Ashton did say, in deference to the victims:

“I wholesale feel for anybody who feels like they were violated in any way.”

“…for anybody who feels like…”?? Damn. That’s like when someone says they’re sorry if you’re offended. We’re not sure he could have given a weaker, less meaningful statement if it had a laugh track behind it. Oof.

What do YOU think of Ashton’s statement??

[Image via Jimmy Kimmel Live/Carsey-Werner/YouTube.]