diff --git a/slo_generator/api/main.py b/slo_generator/api/main.py
index 42371669..cfe0798b 100644
--- a/slo_generator/api/main.py
+++ b/slo_generator/api/main.py
@@ -98,11 +98,7 @@ def run_export(request):
 
     # Construct exporters block
     spec = {}
-    default_exporters = (
-        config.get('default_exporters', [])
-        if config is not None
-        else []
-    )
+    default_exporters = config.get('default_exporters', [])
     cli_exporters = os.environ.get('EXPORTERS', None)
     if cli_exporters:
         cli_exporters = cli_exporters.split(',')
@@ -193,7 +189,7 @@ def process_batch_req(request, data, config):
         headers['Authorization'] = request.headers['Authorization']
         service_url = service_url.replace('http:', 'https:') # force HTTPS auth
     for url in urls:
-        if config is not None and 'pubsub_batch_handler' in config:
+        if 'pubsub_batch_handler' in config:
             LOGGER.info(f'Sending {url} to pubsub batch handler.')
             from google.cloud import pubsub_v1 # pylint: disable=C0415
             exporter_conf = config.get('pubsub_batch_handler')
diff --git a/slo_generator/backends/cloud_monitoring_mql.py b/slo_generator/backends/cloud_monitoring_mql.py
index 10ccd5d6..4b4ab1ca 100644
--- a/slo_generator/backends/cloud_monitoring_mql.py
+++ b/slo_generator/backends/cloud_monitoring_mql.py
@@ -204,13 +204,11 @@ def query(self, query: str, window: int) -> List[TimeSeriesData]:
             'query': formatted_query
         })
 
-        timeseries: list
-        if self.client:
-            timeseries_pager: QueryTimeSeriesPager = (
-                self.client.query_time_series(request)
-            )
-            timeseries = list(timeseries_pager)  # convert pager to flat list
-            LOGGER.debug(pprint.pformat(timeseries))
+        timeseries_pager: QueryTimeSeriesPager = (
+            self.client.query_time_series(request)
+        )
+        timeseries: list = list(timeseries_pager)  # convert pager to flat list
+        LOGGER.debug(pprint.pformat(timeseries))
         return timeseries
 
     @staticmethod