Britney Spears Partied All Night with Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Before Infamous 2007 MTV VMAs Performance

Britney Spears spent the night partying with Sean “Diddy” Combs before her widely criticized performance at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards.

Recently resurfaced photos show Spears smiling alongside the Bad Boy Records founder at Jet nightclub in Las Vegas on September 7, 2007.

Later that evening, Spears joined Combs, Paris Hilton, and 50 Cent at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino for another party hosted by the rapper. The festivities carried on into the early morning of September 8, though it remains unclear when Spears left.

These images of the “Womanizer” singer, now 43, celebrating with Combs, now 55, were uncovered following a mention of Spears by Casandra “Cassie” Ventura during Combs’ ongoing sex-trafficking trial. (Combs denies the charges.)

Ventura, 38, testified that her relationship with Combs “sort of” began in September 2007 during her 21st birthday celebrations in Las Vegas. “Sean was there, and he brought Dallas Austin, Britney Spears. I think those were the two people that stand out to me,” she said in court on May 15.

Just two days later, on September 9, Spears took the stage at the MTV VMAs to perform her hit “Gimme More.” The show was intended to mark her comeback, but the performance was met with harsh criticism for lackluster choreography and poor lip-syncing.

Backstage, Spears unexpectedly ran into her ex-boyfriend Justin Timberlake, whom she dated from 1999 to 2002. “It had been a while since I’d seen him,” she later wrote. “I couldn’t believe I was going to have to go out onstage feeling the way I felt.”

At the time, Spears was under intense public scrutiny, following her divorce from Kevin Federline and the highly publicized head-shaving incident months earlier.