diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/plugins/javadoc/AbstractJavadocMojo.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/plugins/javadoc/AbstractJavadocMojo.java
index d00714cf3..972b57d9b 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/plugins/javadoc/AbstractJavadocMojo.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/plugins/javadoc/AbstractJavadocMojo.java
@@ -2472,10 +2472,9 @@ private static List<String> trimValues(List<String> items) {
         List<String> result = new ArrayList<>(items.size());
         for (String item : items) {
             String trimmed = item.trim();
-            if (trimmed == null || trimmed.isEmpty()) {
-                continue;
+            if (!trimmed.isEmpty()) {
+                result.add(trimmed);
             }
-            result.add(trimmed);
         }
         return result;
     }
@@ -3658,7 +3657,7 @@ private void addArgIfNotEmpty(
                 while (token.hasMoreTokens()) {
                     String current = token.nextToken().trim();
 
-                    if (current != null && !current.isEmpty()) {
+                    if (!current.isEmpty()) {
                         arguments.add(current);
 
                         if (token.hasMoreTokens() && repeatKey) {
@@ -3891,9 +3890,6 @@ private synchronized void resolveDependencyBundles() throws IOException {
         if (dependencyJavadocBundles == null) {
             dependencyJavadocBundles =
                     resourceResolver.resolveDependencyJavadocBundles(getDependencySourceResolverConfig());
-            if (dependencyJavadocBundles == null) {
-                dependencyJavadocBundles = new ArrayList<>();
-            }
         }
     }
 
@@ -4930,45 +4926,38 @@ private void addTagletsFromTagletArtifacts(List<String> arguments) throws MavenR
         tagletsPath = JavadocUtil.pruneFiles(tagletsPath);
 
         for (String tagletJar : tagletsPath) {
-            if (!tagletJar.toLowerCase(Locale.ENGLISH).endsWith(".jar")) {
-                continue;
-            }
-
-            List<String> tagletClasses;
-            try {
-                tagletClasses = JavadocUtil.getTagletClassNames(new File(tagletJar));
-            } catch (IOException e) {
-                if (getLog().isWarnEnabled()) {
-                    getLog().warn("Unable to auto-detect Taglet class names from '" + tagletJar
-                            + "'. Try to specify them with <taglets/>.");
-                }
-                if (getLog().isDebugEnabled()) {
-                    getLog().debug("IOException: " + e.getMessage(), e);
-                }
-                continue;
-            } catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
-                if (getLog().isWarnEnabled()) {
-                    getLog().warn("Unable to auto-detect Taglet class names from '" + tagletJar
-                            + "'. Try to specify them with <taglets/>.");
-                }
-                if (getLog().isDebugEnabled()) {
-                    getLog().debug("ClassNotFoundException: " + e.getMessage(), e);
-                }
-                continue;
-            } catch (NoClassDefFoundError e) {
-                if (getLog().isWarnEnabled()) {
-                    getLog().warn("Unable to auto-detect Taglet class names from '" + tagletJar
-                            + "'. Try to specify them with <taglets/>.");
-                }
-                if (getLog().isDebugEnabled()) {
-                    getLog().debug("NoClassDefFoundError: " + e.getMessage(), e);
-                }
-                continue;
-            }
-
-            if (tagletClasses != null && !tagletClasses.isEmpty()) {
-                for (String tagletClass : tagletClasses) {
-                    addArgIfNotEmpty(arguments, "-taglet", JavadocUtil.quotedArgument(tagletClass));
+            if (tagletJar.toLowerCase(Locale.ENGLISH).endsWith(".jar")) {
+                try {
+                    List<String> tagletClasses = JavadocUtil.getTagletClassNames(new File(tagletJar));
+                    if (!tagletClasses.isEmpty()) {
+                        for (String tagletClass : tagletClasses) {
+                            addArgIfNotEmpty(arguments, "-taglet", JavadocUtil.quotedArgument(tagletClass));
+                        }
+                    }
+                } catch (IOException e) {
+                    if (getLog().isWarnEnabled()) {
+                        getLog().warn("Unable to auto-detect Taglet class names from '" + tagletJar
+                                + "'. Try to specify them with <taglets/>.");
+                    }
+                    if (getLog().isDebugEnabled()) {
+                        getLog().debug("IOException: " + e.getMessage(), e);
+                    }
+                } catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
+                    if (getLog().isWarnEnabled()) {
+                        getLog().warn("Unable to auto-detect Taglet class names from '" + tagletJar
+                                + "'. Try to specify them with <taglets/>.");
+                    }
+                    if (getLog().isDebugEnabled()) {
+                        getLog().debug("ClassNotFoundException: " + e.getMessage(), e);
+                    }
+                } catch (NoClassDefFoundError e) {
+                    if (getLog().isWarnEnabled()) {
+                        getLog().warn("Unable to auto-detect Taglet class names from '" + tagletJar
+                                + "'. Try to specify them with <taglets/>.");
+                    }
+                    if (getLog().isDebugEnabled()) {
+                        getLog().debug("NoClassDefFoundError: " + e.getMessage(), e);
+                    }
                 }
             }
         }
@@ -5072,9 +5061,7 @@ private void doExecuteJavadocCommandLine(Commandline cmd, File javadocOutputDire
                 }
                 writeDebugJavadocScript(cmdLine, javadocOutputDirectory);
 
-                if ((output != null && !output.isEmpty())
-                        && StringUtils.isEmpty(err.getOutput())
-                        && isJavadocVMInitError(output)) {
+                if (output != null && StringUtils.isEmpty(err.getOutput()) && isJavadocVMInitError(output)) {
                     throw new MavenReportException(output + '\n' + '\n' + JavadocUtil.ERROR_INIT_VM + '\n'
                             + "Or, try to reduce the Java heap size for the Javadoc goal using "
                             + "-Dminmemory=<size> and -Dmaxmemory=<size>." + '\n' + '\n' + "Command line was: "
@@ -5083,7 +5070,7 @@ && isJavadocVMInitError(output)) {
                             + "' dir.\n");
                 }
 
-                if (output != null && !output.isEmpty()) {
+                if (output != null) {
                     getLog().info(output);
                 }
 
@@ -5114,7 +5101,7 @@ && isJavadocVMInitError(output)) {
                 throw new MavenReportException(msg.toString());
             }
 
-            if (output != null && !output.isEmpty()) {
+            if (output != null) {
                 getLog().info(output);
             }
         } catch (CommandLineException e) {
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/plugins/javadoc/JavadocUtil.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/plugins/javadoc/JavadocUtil.java
index 040e9992e..4871f1a25 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/plugins/javadoc/JavadocUtil.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/plugins/javadoc/JavadocUtil.java
@@ -229,7 +229,7 @@ protected static String quotedArgument(String value) {
         List<String> list = Arrays.stream(arg.split("\n")).map(String::trim).collect(Collectors.toList());
         arg = String.join("", list);
 
-        if (arg != null && !arg.isEmpty()) {
+        if (!arg.isEmpty()) {
             arg = arg.replace("'", "\\'");
             arg = "'" + arg + "'";
         }
@@ -815,9 +815,7 @@ protected static void invokeMaven(
             request.setProperties(properties);
         }
         File javaHome = getJavaHome(log);
-        if (javaHome != null) {
-            request.setJavaHome(javaHome);
-        }
+        request.setJavaHome(javaHome);
 
         if (log != null && log.isDebugEnabled()) {
             log.debug("Invoking Maven for the goals: " + goals + " with "
@@ -1106,7 +1104,7 @@ private static File getJavaHome(Log log) {
             javaHome = new File(javaHomeValue);
         }
 
-        if (javaHome == null || !javaHome.exists()) {
+        if (!javaHome.exists()) {
             if (log != null && log.isErrorEnabled()) {
                 log.error("Cannot find Java application directory. Either specify 'java.home' system property, or "
                         + "JAVA_HOME environment variable.");
@@ -1464,12 +1462,8 @@ private static BufferedReader getReader(URL url, Settings settings) throws IOExc
                 public void close() throws IOException {
                     super.close();
 
-                    if (httpMethod != null) {
-                        httpMethod.releaseConnection();
-                    }
-                    if (httpClient != null) {
-                        httpClient.close();
-                    }
+                    httpMethod.releaseConnection();
+                    httpClient.close();
                 }
             };
         }
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/plugins/javadoc/JavadocReportTest.java b/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/plugins/javadoc/JavadocReportTest.java
index 3218221da..f2be6a73f 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/plugins/javadoc/JavadocReportTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/plugins/javadoc/JavadocReportTest.java
@@ -1033,9 +1033,7 @@ public void testProxy() throws Exception {
             // see comment above (line 829)
             //             assertTrue( optionsContent.contains( "-link 'http://commons.apache.org/logging/apidocs'" ) );
         } finally {
-            if (proxyServer != null) {
-                proxyServer.stop();
-            }
+            proxyServer.stop();
         }
     }