Copy project files in path and projects in child subgroups

Question

I am just starting out with GitLab and my boss asked me to use GitLab CI to initiate a pipeline which goes to a group/subgroup then clones everything inside, project files, subgroups, child projects and subgroups, until the end of the path. I am using the -gitlab-ci.yml in an empty project repo to try do this not lined to either the source or destination group. I keep getting stuck with host verification errors when pushing to the destination group. I know my method for accessing the source subgroup works fine because I can echo out what's inside and I can read it in the job execution log. I added my code below for reference, I would appreciate the help. I keep getting stuck with host verification

stages:
  - list_files

variables:
  SOURCE_GROUP_ID: "########"
  DESTINATION_GROUP_ID: "########"  # Replace with your destination group ID
  ACCESS_TOKEN: $GROUP_ACCESS_TOKEN

list_files:
  stage: list_files
  before_script:
    - apt-get update -y
    - apt-get install -y jq
    - git config --global user.email $MY_EMAIL
    - git config --global user.name $MY_USER_NAME
  script:
    - |
      function list_subgroups_and_projects {
        local source_group_id=$1
        local destination_group_id=$2
        local source_group_name=$(curl --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN:$ACCESS_TOKEN" "https://gitlab.com/api/v4/groups/$source_group_id" | jq -r '.name')
        echo "Subgroups and projects in group: $source_group_name"
        # List projects in current group
        echo "Projects in group $source_group_name:"
        projects=$(curl --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN:$ACCESS_TOKEN" "https://gitlab.com/api/v4/groups/$source_group_id/projects" | jq -r '.[].ssh_url_to_repo')
        for project in $projects; do
          echo "Cloning project: $project"
          git clone $project;
          project_name=$(basename $project .git)
          pushd $project_name
          echo "Pushing project $project_name to destination group"
          git remote set-url origin [email protected]:$DESTINATION_GROUP_ID/$project_name.git
          git push origin master
          popd
        done
        # List subgroups
        echo "Subgroups in group $source_group_name:"
        subgroups=$(curl --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN:$ACCESS_TOKEN" "https://gitlab.com/api/v4/groups/$source_group_id/subgroups" | jq -r '.[].id')
        for subgroup_id in $subgroups; do
          list_subgroups_and_projects $subgroup_id $destination_group_id
        done
      }

    - list_subgroups_and_projects "$SOURCE_GROUP_ID" "$DESTINATION_GROUP_ID"

Please help me with finding a solution to the host verification failure.