clearInterval is killing setTimeout

Here is an example that causes errors...

var wifi;
var wifiTry = 1;
function connectWifi(){
  console.log("Connecting to WiFi");
  wifi.connect("access","password", function(err) {
    if (err) {
      throw err;
    }
    console.log("Connected!");
    wifi.getIP(function(e, ip) {
      LED2.set();
      console.log(ip);
    });
  });
}
//checks the ESP8266 connection status
function espStatus(callback){
  wifi.at.cmd('AT+CIPSTATUS\r\n',1000,function(d){
    console.log('ESP8266 '+d);
    var status = d.slice(-1);//get the last character
    if(status == 2){//connection is good
      console.log('good connection');
      wifiTry=0;
    }else if(wifiTry>1){
      clearInterval();//clearInterval is causing issues here
      wifiTry=0;
      console.log('end');
    }else{//connection is bad and we need to reconnect
      wifiTry++;
      console.log('bad connection');
      //need timeout to give esp8266 time to think.
      setTimeout(connectWifi,500);
    }
  });
}

function onInit() {
  clearInterval();
  E.enableWatchdog(10, true); //should restart the pico if it freezes
  // initialise the ESP8266, after a delay
  setTimeout(function() {
    digitalWrite(B9,1); // enable on Pico Shim V2
    Serial2.setup(115200, { rx: A3, tx : A2 });
    wifi = require("ESP8266WiFi_0v25").connect(Serial2, function(err){
      if(err){
        throw err;
      }
      connectWifi();
      setInterval(espStatus, 30000);
    });
  }, 2000);
}

And this is the error:

Uncaught Error: Unknown Timeout
 at line 1 col 52
...))?(d=p,b=f):clearTimeout(e);void 0===d&&0<g.length&&(a=g.sh...
                              ^
in function "d" called from line 1 col 324
...c&&(e[c](k),n=!0);n||d&&d(k)}a=a.substr(f+1);"\n"==a[0]&&(a=...
                              ^
in function called from system