diff --git a/git/cmd.py b/git/cmd.py
index 0c3cc8cae..c29e34854 100644
--- a/git/cmd.py
+++ b/git/cmd.py
@@ -609,7 +609,7 @@ def execute(self, command,
                          bufsize=-1,
                          stdin=istream,
                          stderr=PIPE,
-                         stdout=with_stdout and PIPE or open(os.devnull, 'wb'),
+                         stdout=PIPE if with_stdout else open(os.devnull, 'wb'),
                          shell=self.USE_SHELL,
                          close_fds=(os.name == 'posix'),  # unsupported on windows
                          universal_newlines=universal_newlines,