diff --git a/src/conf/virdomainobjlist.c b/src/conf/virdomainobjlist.c
index e1d455eefe..5f9fd9aabc 100644
--- a/src/conf/virdomainobjlist.c
+++ b/src/conf/virdomainobjlist.c
@@ -980,7 +980,6 @@ virDomainObjListCollect(virDomainObjList *domlist,
     struct virDomainListData data = { NULL, 0 };
 
     virObjectRWLockRead(domlist);
-    sa_assert(domlist->objs);
     data.vms = g_new0(virDomainObj *, virHashSize(domlist->objs));
 
     virHashForEach(domlist->objs, virDomainObjListCollectIterator, &data);
@@ -1040,7 +1039,6 @@ virDomainObjListConvert(virDomainObjList *domlist,
     }
     virObjectRWUnlock(domlist);
 
-    sa_assert(*vms);
     virDomainObjListFilter(vms, nvms, conn, filter, flags);
 
     return 0;
diff --git a/src/conf/virnwfilterbindingobjlist.c b/src/conf/virnwfilterbindingobjlist.c
index fe97f2b3df..1f19e27eb0 100644
--- a/src/conf/virnwfilterbindingobjlist.c
+++ b/src/conf/virnwfilterbindingobjlist.c
@@ -432,7 +432,6 @@ virNWFilterBindingObjListCollect(virNWFilterBindingObjList *domlist,
     struct virNWFilterBindingListData data = { NULL, 0 };
 
     virObjectRWLockRead(domlist);
-    sa_assert(domlist->objs);
     data.bindings = g_new0(virNWFilterBindingObj *, virHashSize(domlist->objs));
 
     virHashForEach(domlist->objs, virNWFilterBindingObjListCollectIterator, &data);
diff --git a/src/libxl/libxl_driver.c b/src/libxl/libxl_driver.c
index 2b844bb3b5..75da7d7ff2 100644
--- a/src/libxl/libxl_driver.c
+++ b/src/libxl/libxl_driver.c
@@ -1666,8 +1666,6 @@ libxlDomainSetMemoryFlags(virDomainPtr dom, unsigned long newmem,
         }
 
         if (flags & VIR_DOMAIN_MEM_CONFIG) {
-            /* Help clang 2.8 decipher the logic flow.  */
-            sa_assert(persistentDef);
             virDomainDefSetMemoryTotal(persistentDef, newmem);
             if (persistentDef->mem.cur_balloon > newmem)
                 persistentDef->mem.cur_balloon = newmem;
@@ -1702,7 +1700,6 @@ libxlDomainSetMemoryFlags(virDomainPtr dom, unsigned long newmem,
         }
 
         if (flags & VIR_DOMAIN_MEM_CONFIG) {
-            sa_assert(persistentDef);
             persistentDef->mem.cur_balloon = newmem;
             ret = virDomainDefSave(persistentDef, driver->xmlopt, cfg->configDir);
             goto endjob;
@@ -2476,9 +2473,6 @@ libxlDomainPinVcpuFlags(virDomainPtr dom, unsigned int vcpu,
     if (flags & VIR_DOMAIN_AFFECT_LIVE)
         targetDef = vm->def;
 
-    /* Make sure coverity knows targetDef is valid at this point. */
-    sa_assert(targetDef);
-
     pcpumap = virBitmapNewData(cpumap, maplen);
     if (!pcpumap)
         goto endjob;
@@ -2557,9 +2551,6 @@ libxlDomainGetVcpuPinInfo(virDomainPtr dom, int ncpumaps,
     if (flags & VIR_DOMAIN_AFFECT_LIVE)
         targetDef = vm->def;
 
-    /* Make sure coverity knows targetDef is valid at this point. */
-    sa_assert(targetDef);
-
     hostcpus = virBitmapNew(libxl_get_max_cpus(cfg->ctx));
     virBitmapSetAll(hostcpus);
 
diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_monitor.c b/src/qemu/qemu_monitor.c
index 1e6f892e08..8f35b4240f 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_monitor.c
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_monitor.c
@@ -398,9 +398,6 @@ qemuMonitorIOWriteWithFD(qemuMonitor *mon,
     msg.msg_controllen = sizeof(control);
 
     cmsg = CMSG_FIRSTHDR(&msg);
-    /* Some static analyzers, like clang 2.6-0.6.pre2, fail to see
-       that our use of CMSG_FIRSTHDR will not return NULL.  */
-    sa_assert(cmsg);
     cmsg->cmsg_len = CMSG_LEN(sizeof(int));
     cmsg->cmsg_level = SOL_SOCKET;
     cmsg->cmsg_type = SCM_RIGHTS;
diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_process.c b/src/qemu/qemu_process.c
index 9dc6b71ae5..8ada4feef8 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_process.c
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_process.c
@@ -2089,7 +2089,6 @@ qemuProcessReadLog(qemuDomainLogContext *logCtxt,
             *eol = '\n';
         }
     }
-    filter_next = NULL; /* silence false coverity warning */
 
     if (got > 0 &&
         buf[got - 1] == '\n') {
diff --git a/src/rpc/virnetserver.c b/src/rpc/virnetserver.c
index 42e06fcb59..cfb65f8b5f 100644
--- a/src/rpc/virnetserver.c
+++ b/src/rpc/virnetserver.c
@@ -937,10 +937,6 @@ virNetServerProcessClients(virNetServer *srv)
 
  reprocess:
     for (i = 0; i < srv->nclients; i++) {
-        /* Coverity 5.3.0 couldn't see that srv->clients is non-NULL
-         * if srv->nclients is non-zero.  */
-        sa_assert(srv->clients);
-
         client = srv->clients[i];
         virObjectLock(client);
         if (virNetServerClientWantCloseLocked(client))
diff --git a/src/util/vircommand.c b/src/util/vircommand.c
index 7abb2e288f..6e01e4cb62 100644
--- a/src/util/vircommand.c
+++ b/src/util/vircommand.c
@@ -2263,9 +2263,6 @@ virCommandProcessIO(virCommand *cmd)
                     buf = cmd->errbuf;
                     len = &errlen;
                 }
-                /* Silence a false positive from clang. */
-                sa_assert(buf);
-
                 done = read(fds[i].fd, data, sizeof(data));
                 if (done < 0) {
                     if (errno != EINTR &&
diff --git a/src/util/virconf.c b/src/util/virconf.c
index 15a65ec394..07ecfc7b57 100644
--- a/src/util/virconf.c
+++ b/src/util/virconf.c
@@ -472,12 +472,6 @@ virConfParseValue(virConfParserCtxt *ctxt)
         }
         while ((ctxt->cur < ctxt->end) && (CUR != ']')) {
 
-            /* Tell Clang that when execution reaches this point
-               "lst" is guaranteed to be non-NULL.  This stops it
-               from issuing an invalid NULL-dereference warning about
-               "prev = lst; while (prev->next..." below.  */
-            sa_assert(lst);
-
             if (CUR != ',') {
                 virConfError(ctxt, VIR_ERR_CONF_SYNTAX,
                              _("expecting a separator in list"));
diff --git a/src/util/virhostmem.c b/src/util/virhostmem.c
index ae42978ed2..8aa675cb4f 100644
--- a/src/util/virhostmem.c
+++ b/src/util/virhostmem.c
@@ -313,7 +313,6 @@ virHostMemSetParameterValue(virTypedParameterPtr param)
     int rc = -1;
 
     char *field = strchr(param->field, '_');
-    sa_assert(field);
     field++;
     path = g_strdup_printf("%s/%s", SYSFS_MEMORY_SHARED_PATH, field);
 
@@ -338,7 +337,6 @@ virHostMemParametersAreAllSupported(virTypedParameterPtr params,
         virTypedParameterPtr param = &params[i];
 
         char *field = strchr(param->field, '_');
-        sa_assert(field);
         field++;
         path = g_strdup_printf("%s/%s", SYSFS_MEMORY_SHARED_PATH, field);
 
diff --git a/src/util/virobject.c b/src/util/virobject.c
index 7173b9136f..3412985b79 100644
--- a/src/util/virobject.c
+++ b/src/util/virobject.c
@@ -182,7 +182,6 @@ virClassNew(virClass *parent,
         return NULL;
     } else if (objectSize <= parentSize ||
                parentSize != (parent ? parent->objectSize : 0)) {
-        sa_assert(parent);
         virReportInvalidArg(objectSize,
                             _("object size %zu of %s is not larger than parent class %zu"),
                             objectSize, name, parent->objectSize);
diff --git a/src/util/virutil.c b/src/util/virutil.c
index 3f49a469e5..311cbbf93a 100644
--- a/src/util/virutil.c
+++ b/src/util/virutil.c
@@ -512,9 +512,6 @@ virGetHostnameImpl(bool quiet)
         return g_strdup(hostname);
     }
 
-    /* Tell static analyzers about getaddrinfo semantics.  */
-    sa_assert(info);
-
     if (info->ai_canonname == NULL ||
         STRPREFIX(info->ai_canonname, "localhost"))
         /* in this case, we tried to canonicalize and we ended up back with
diff --git a/tests/commandtest.c b/tests/commandtest.c
index 57c7db67d8..5267e1bf1c 100644
--- a/tests/commandtest.c
+++ b/tests/commandtest.c
@@ -611,7 +611,6 @@ static int test17(const void *unused G_GNUC_UNUSED)
         goto cleanup;
     }
 
-    sa_assert(outbuf);
     if (*outbuf) {
         puts("output buffer is not an allocated empty string");
         goto cleanup;
diff --git a/tools/vsh.c b/tools/vsh.c
index ebaf17f326..123284c636 100644
--- a/tools/vsh.c
+++ b/tools/vsh.c
@@ -449,7 +449,6 @@ vshCmddefGetOption(vshControl *ctl, const vshCmdDef *cmd, const char *name,
                    opt->help = "string": straight replacement of name
                    opt->help = "string=value": treat boolean flag as
                    alias of option and its default value */
-                sa_assert(!alias);
                 alias = g_strdup(opt->help);
                 name = alias;
                 if ((value = strchr(name, '='))) {