It’s a recurring pattern where DeSantis and the organizations assisting him remain quiet about who is bankrolling his travels and his frequent use of private charter jets.

Records from this week show that a private plane linked to Doyle — CEO of DEX Imaging headquartered in Tampa — flew from Tallahassee to Laconia, N.H. on the morning of July 4, according to publicly available flight records. The plane stopped shortly after landing, and flew the short distance to Manchester.

Later that afternoon, the same plane left Manchester for a nearly 3-hour flight, returning to Tallahassee in the evening, records show. DeSantis resides in the governor’s mansion in Tallahassee when he’s not on the road campaigning.

After a short stop in Tallahassee, the plane flew to St. Petersburg, Fla.

Federal Aviation Administration records trace the aircraft to a DMD Aviation out of Belleair, Fla. — an LLC managed by Doyle, according to Florida state records. Doyle’s representatives declined to comment. DeSantis’ campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Doyle, who reportedly has had an interest in purchasing the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team, was a former appointee of then-Gov. Rick Scott to the Florida state university system’s board of governors.

This year, Florida’s GOP-controlled Legislature approved a bill that shields DeSantis’ publicly funded travel as governor from public scrutiny. The bill, approved in March ahead of DeSantis’ 2024 announcement, applies retroactively, meaning the governor’s past official travel is blocked from the public.

Doyle’s company, DEX Imaging, has hired lobbyists from the prominent firm The Southern Group who represent its interests before both the executive branch and the Florida Legislature. A check of state records shows that DEX has been authorized as a subcontractor and dealer and reseller of print equipment since at least 2014. A state contracting website shows DEX Imaging has been paid between roughly $62,000 to $100,000 a year since 2013 for services it provided to state agencies and judicial circuits.

DeSantis jumped into the race for president in late May and has kept a steady stream of appearances in early-voting states, including Iowa and South Carolina. Flight records show that the same chartered jet flew from Tallahassee to Nevada to California and back that mirrored DeSantis’ travel to those destinations in June, while that chartered jet was used to fly from the Florida state capital to Eagle Pass, Texas, where DeSantis rolled out his immigration proposal.

“Anything of value given to a federal candidate like DeSantis is a contribution under federal law, subject to limits and restrictions,” said Paul S. Ryan, a longtime campaign finance and ethics lawyer. “In order to avoid violating federal contribution limits, federal candidates like DeSantis must pay the owners of private planes when they fly on them.”

DeSantis’ campaign filings delineating donations and expenses through June have not yet been made public but will be later this month.

This wouldn’t be Doyle’s first foray into presidential politics. The businessman donated $250,000 to support former President Donald Trump’s reelection bid in 2020. He subsequently shelled out $125,000 for DeSantis’ state-level PAC — money that has since been shifted into a federal PAC supporting DeSantis’ White House ambitions.

On his trip this week, DeSantis flew some 4,300 miles north from Florida for a swing through New Hampshire. He marched alongside his family in back-to-back July 4 parades, undaunted by a downpour as he sought to beef up his standing in the state where he trails Donald Trump in the polls.