Embattled senator Robert Menendez’s decision to run as an independent candidate in the New Jersey senate race may have more to do with holding the federal government hostage than serving voters, political analysts say.

Menendez, who is currently on trial for bribery and corruption charges in Manhattan federal court, could lose his pension and health benefits for the rest of his life if he is convicted, according to legislation passed in 2012.

The Stock Act punishes lawmakers convicted of corruption-related felonies by taking away their retirement perks.

The Post is told that running for re-election and switching his affiliation from Democrat to independent is basically Menendez’s insurance policy: If convicted, the senator would likely lose his pension and health benefits; if pardoned, he could keep them.

The 70-year-old collects a $174,000 annual Senate salary and would be eligible for a pension of nearly $140,000 a year plus health care for him and and his wife, Nadine Arslanian, for life, as a member of Congress with more than 30 years of government service, according to the US Office of Personnel Management.

Menendez has been in the Senate since 2006, and before that was the Representative for New Jersey’s 13th district beginning in 1993.

His run as an independent will likely split the vote for his Democratic rival, Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ 3rd District) — who won the primary Tuesday — and could propel a Republican candidate into his senate seat, political analysts say. Curtis Bashaw, a hotel entrepreneur, defeated opponent Christine Serrano Glassner,the Mendham Borough mayor who was backed by Donald Trump, for the GOP nomination.

Experts said that Biden might be more likely to pardon Menendez if the senator is willing to drop out and not split the vote. But there is also an expectation that Trump could pardon him. 

Democrats are said to be furious that Menendez could take votes away and cause them to lose a Senate seat in New Jersey — for the first time in 52 years.

“Menendez as an independent with a campaign that focuses on groups with whom he has a due bill — Latinos, pro-Israel community, Hudson County voters — could injure the Democratic victor in the New Jersey primary,” Hank Sheinkopf, a veteran political consultant, told The Post. “In electoral politics, revenge is a dish best served hot. His political friends are running away from him and he is returning the favor.”

New Jersey hasn’t elected a Republican senator since 1972, and a win would upset the slim Democratic majority in the Senate, analysts said.

“By continuing to run for the New Jersey Senate seat, what Menendez is setting up is a situation where he’s in a great position to either force a pardon out of Biden or receive a pardon from Trump as thanks for taking enough votes away from Democrat Andy Kim,” said Thomas Anderson, president of the Last Government Watchdog, a non-profit good-government group. “If a Republican wins, it potentially shifts the balance of power in Washington out of the hands of [Democratic Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer.”

Menendez, his wife and three associates were indicted on bribery and conspiracy to act as foreign agents for Egypt and Qatar last year. In a June 2022 raid on the Englewood Cliffs home he shares with Arslanian, federal agents found 13 gold bars and $480,000 in cash stuffed into shoes and the pockets of jackets at the house — alleged rewards for the senator’s intervention in criminal cases and helping secure weapons for Egypt, according to court documents.

The senator is being tried separately from his wife, whose trial is scheduled to begin in July after her treatment for breast cancer.

Menendez’s attorney did not return a request for comment Wednesday.