WASHINGTON (Reuters) - One of President Donald Trump's personal lawyers defended a meeting that the president's son had with Russian nationals during the 2016 campaign, suggesting that the meeting involving Donald Trump Jr. had been screened by the Secret Service.

"Well, I wonder why the Secret Service, if this was nefarious, why the Secret Service allowed these people in. The president had Secret Service protection at that point, and that raised a question with me," Jay Sekulow, a member of Trump's legal team, said on Sunday on the ABC news program "This Week."

In an emailed response to questions about Sekulow's comments, Secret Service spokesman Mason Brayman said that the younger Trump was not under Secret Service protection at the time of the June 2016 meeting that included Trump's son and two senior campaign officials.

"Donald Trump, Jr. was not a protectee of the USSS in June, 2016. Thus we would not have screened anyone he was meeting with at that time," the emailed statement said.

Donald Trump Jr. acknowledged meeting with a Russian lawyer in New York City during the 2016 presidential campaign after he was told she might have damaging information about his father's rival, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

According to emails released by Trump Jr. last week, he eagerly agreed to meet the woman, who he was told was a Russian government lawyer. The woman, Natalia Veselnitskaya, has said she is a private lawyer and denies having Kremlin ties.

On Friday, NBC News reported that a lobbyist who was once a Soviet counter-intelligence officer participated in the meeting, which was also attended by Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and the president's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort.

Trump himself has said he was unaware of the meeting until a few days ago.