President Biden’s advisors estimated that the Justice Department would interpret possession of the materials as little more than an honest oversight.

WASHINGTON — The decision by President Biden and his top advisers to keep the discovery of classified documents secret from the public and even the majority of the White House staff for 68 days was motivated by a hope that the incident could be resolved quietly without repercussions for Mr. Biden or his presidency.

The handful of advisers who were aware of the initial discovery on November 2 — six days before the midterm elections — gambled that, without going public, they could persuade the Justice Department that the matter was nothing more than a minor, good-faith error, unlike former President Donald J. Trump’s document hoarding at his Florida estate.

In actuality, the Biden tactic was heavily influenced by the Trump case, in which the former president refused to turn over all the confidential materials he had stolen despite being subpoenaed to do so. According to persons familiar with the internal discussions who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the objective of the Biden team was to gain the confidence of Justice Department investigators and demonstrate that the president and his team were working fully. In other words, they would avoid any significant legal consequences by doing the exact opposite of what the Biden legal team had observed the Trump legal team doing.

At least in the near term, the wager appears to have failed. As his aides had anticipated, Mr. Biden’s quiet while cooperating with investigators did not prevent the appointment of a special counsel, but it did result in a public outcry when it was revealed that the White House had concealed the matter from the public for more than two months. In the long term, Mr. Biden’s advisers hope that the trust they believe they have created with investigators by not litigating the topic publicly will pay off by persuading the special counsel that nothing improper occurred.

In the interim, however, Mr. Biden’s method has exposed him to severe criticism for concealing the revelation for so long. And now, after a productive year that appeared to put the president in a strong position to announce a re-election campaign, the handling of the documents case has eroded his ability to claim the high road against Mr. Trump and raised questions about his team’s ability to navigate Republican attacks from Capitol Hill.

During a tour of storm damage in California on Thursday evening, Mr. Biden attempted to deflect queries from reporters about whether he regretted not disclosing the discovery of secret material earlier.

“We are fully collaborating and look forward to a speedy resolution,” he said. “I believe you will discover there is nothing there. I have no regrets. I am doing what the attorneys have instructed me to do. That is precisely what we are doing. There is no “there” present.

At least initially, the discussions were limited to the husband-and-wife team of Bob Bauer, the president’s top personal attorney, and Anita Dunn, a White House senior adviser; Mike Donilon, the president’s longtime confidant and speechwriter; Mr. Biden’s sister, Valerie Biden Owens; Stuart F. Delery, the White House counsel; and Richard Sauber, the White House lawyer overseeing the response to investigations, according to people familiar with the matter.

Eventually, the circle grew slightly larger, but the subject remained strictly confidential, and the idea of making the discoveries public in advance does not appear to have been seriously explored. The White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, informed reporters that neither she nor her team were engaged in formulating the strategy for when to reveal the development.

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The National Archives and Records Administration, which is responsible for securing such documents, was informed immediately, according to the officials. The legal responsibilities of the president was apparent, and his attorneys have no intention of engaging in a battle with the archivists, as Mr. Trump and his advisers did for months after leaving office in 2021.