NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A former senior attorney to then-President George W. Bush was charged yesterday with beating and choking his wife into unconsciousness at their Connecticut home.

John Michael Farren, 57, was arraigned on attempted-murder and other charges and ordered held in lieu of $2 million bail.

Mary Farren, a Washington energy lawyer, was temporarily blinded after being repeatedly struck with a metal flashlight Wednesday night in the couple’s New Canaan hone, but triggered an alarm and fled with her two kids, cops said.

She had delivered divorce papers to her husband on Monday, according to an arrest affidavit, and was in stable condition in a hospital last night with a broken nose, a broken jaw and other injuries.

The affidavit says John Farren demanded that she drop the divorce suit but that she told him she could no longer deal with his explosive temper.